Special Edition: On Mission in the Dominican Republic - The FinancialMD Show - Ep 033

noemedagatan
Jul 11
13 min read

Summary:

· A Mission Trip [0:00:17]

· What Are Audition Rotations [0:01:11]

· Why Pick Orthopedics [0:02:21]

· Lindsay’s Journey With Mission of Hope [0:04:53]

· A Typical Day On The Mission Field [0:05:52]

· Holistic Mission: Practical Help And Spiritual Hope [0:07:58]

· Lessons From The Journey [0:09:02]

· Words For Those Who Want To Serve [0:10:25]

· Parting Thoughts [0:12:39]

Welcome to the Financial MD Show. This is the only podcast designed specifically for residents and young physicians to help you become educated on financial planning for physicians and avoid many of the common financial mistakes doctors make. Your hosts, Jon and Trevor, explore a different topic with each episode. Jon Solitro is a financial planner and certified financial education instructor. He’s been working with young physicians for the better part of the decade and lectures to graduate medical programs around the country. Dr. Trevor Smith is a board-certified ophthalmologist with a full-time practice and he has learned the ins and outs firsthand what it takes to make smart financial decisions as a young physician. And now here’s your hosts, Jon and Trevor.

Jon Solitro: All right, welcome to the Financial MD Show. We've got a special edition today. We are on location in the Dominican Republic. Essentially, we're in a rainforest. Can we get any -- there are palm trees over there, right? So we can kind of see that, along with other more rainforest-y trees.

A Mission Trip [0:00:17]

This is a mission trip. We spent the week talking to people in town -- Dominicans -- learning Spanish, doing this with our church, and it's been an incredible experience. But while I was here, I saw that there was also a medical missions trip going on. You guys all know how passionate we are about giving back, so we got the opportunity to talk to one of them. We've got a fourth-year medical student here. Lindsay, would you introduce yourself?

Lindsay: Yeah. Hi, I'm Lindsay. I am a fourth-year medical student. I'll be applying for orthopedic surgery this fall for residency starting next July. I go to William Carey University College of Osteopathic Medicine in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, but I was born and raised in Indianapolis.

Jon: Awesome, okay. The first question everybody wants to know is how’s the process going. So your match will happen this coming March, yeah?

Lindsay: Yes, absolutely.

Jon: Okay. And what does the process look like for your particular specialty? You said there are some tryouts you have to do?

What Are Audition Rotations [0:01:11]

Lindsay: Yeah, absolutely. Tryouts is a great word for it. We call them audition rotations. So starting August 4th, about every 2 to 3 weeks, I'll go to a different hospital that has an orthopedic surgery residency program at it and spend some time with their faculty, rotating through their program, gives us a chance to get to know the program and programs a chance to get to know us.

Jon: Yeah.

Lindsay: Then we'll apply to our programs in September and then find out October/November-ish if we get an interview at the programs we applied to. Then interview October, November, December; and then around February, submit our rank list, so the programs that we want to hopefully go to or hopefully got an interview at. And then in March, find out if we matched in general at all to our specialty of choice, and then at the end of match week, find out what program we matched to.

Jon: Oh, yes, match day.

Lindsay: Yeah.

Jon: Have you gotten a glimpse of how your med school does match days? Is there a big event?

Lindsay: Yeah, they do a huge event. They have balloons and cakes and all kinds of things, which is always kind of funny because it's so stressful for us as students, but then our families are there and the faculty is there to be supportive and hopefully celebrate.

Jon: That's right.

Lindsay: Yeah.

Jon: Okay, cool. So why ortho?

Why Pick Orthopedics [0:02:21]

Lindsay: Yeah, absolutely, great question. I grew up in Indianapolis. I worked kind of for an orthopedic research foundation starting when I was 14, actually, so my first couple of years of high school when the firm that I was or the hospital I was working with was transitioning from paper charts to EMR. So my first job with this research foundation was scanning paper plain film -- well, not paper -- but plain film x-rays into the EMR.

Jon: Okay, yeah.

Lindsay: And got to continue to work with that foundation actually for the next few years on and off, and fell in love with ortho and the difference it can make in people's lives. I kind of have a fix-it mentality. I think you kind of have to have a fix-it mentality to do ortho. You've got to like your power tools, and more than that, you've got to be the one to see a need that a person has and want to fix it the right way, the right time, the first time. And ortho is one of those unique opportunities we get in medicine to really make a huge difference in patients' lives in a really short amount of time.

Jon: Yup.

Lindsay: Love getting to serve patients hopefully in the future in that way and I think it'll be great.

Jon: That's cool. Well, I'm excited for you. We've lectured to a lot of ortho residency programs.

Lindsay: Okay, that’s awesome.

Jon: We've got attending clients that are orthos and there's… One of the exciting things about it, too, is it's one of those specialties that you can obviously subspecialize.

Lindsay: Yes.

Jon: Have you thought about that at all or is that you'll figure that out in the next five or six years?

Lindsay: I have. So the main goal is to match first but I did most of my research in total joint so love total joint but grew up a huge Colts fan in Indianapolis… huge Pacers fan in Indianapolis, so.

Jon: Yeah.

Lindsay: Also love the sports thing, but more recently, I got to work with a foot and ankle surgeon for two weeks and loved kind of the fine dissections that foot and ankle give you and a lot of the outpatient procedures you can do in foot and ankle, so really loved that.

Jon: Very cool. Okay, awesome. Okay, so talk to me a little bit more about this week. We started on Sunday, and did you get here Saturday as well?

Lindsay: Yes. Well, we got here late Saturday, but actually it was like 5 a.m. on Sunday morning so Saturday into Sunday we got here.

Jon: Took the red eye, okay.

Lindsay: Yeah, definitely.

Jon: And she and I have both kind of been in it out and doing our stuff. She's been doing the clinic that she'll talk about here in a second but it's just been incredible serving the Dominican people and seeing what God's doing on this island which apparently is called Hispaniola.

Lindsay: Yeah, okay.

Jon: Which is Haiti and Dominican Republic.

Lindsay: Yeah, there you go.

Jon: And we'll have some links and things below with the organization called Mission of Hope. But tell me, Lindsay, how did you get involved with this? What does your school do with this? Why? What's… how did that all start?

Lindsay’s Journey With Mission of Hope [0:04:53]

Lindsay: Absolutely. So our school has an opportunity for students that have just finished their first year of med school to come down with some faculty from our school and basically serve in the community doing mobile medical clinics for four days during the week. I did that in between my first and second year of med school and then got asked now about to start my fourth year to come back and serve a little bit, kind of in the pseudo-function as a resident, getting to oversee students but then also getting to report back to our faculty. So, it's been great experience for me personally to kind of get to function as a little bit like a resident this week. But more than anything, just to get to encourage our students who are just now finishing their first year of med school to get out in the community to serve patients here in the Dominican that have such a great need for medical services that they might not otherwise have access to. So, getting to encourage those students has been super great.

Jon: Got you. So talk me through… so day-to-day, what did your days look like this week?

A Typical Day On The Mission Field [0:05:52]

Lindsay: Yeah. So got up super early, got on the bus with our mobile pharmacy, got set, went into town, got set up in local churches, and then normally by the time we would get there, we would have patients waiting to come and see our students that were paired in teams of two.

Jon: Okay.

Lindsay: They would come in, meet with the students. The students would conduct a patient interview, a review of systems, thorough physical exam, make an assessment and plan for what they think this patient might benefit from. Then they would present that patient to me and I would kind of give them some direction on what might, you know, medication-wise or treatment-wise might best suit those patients. And then I would get to chat with our attendings and they give the final sign-off and then get patients out hopefully with medications that can meet their physical needs but also with encouragement and prayer for their spiritual needs.

Jon: Awesome, okay. And how many were you seeing in a day typically?

Lindsay: Yeah. So this year was actually really great. Two years ago when I came as an almost-second year student, we saw about 100 patients a day. We had a much smaller team. This year now as an almost-fourth year student, we saw, gosh, 350 patients a day over the set of two teams that we brought down with us, which was great. So, so awesome. So we had to have been near a thousand patients for the whole week.

Jon: Okay. Wow, yeah.

Lindsay: Yeah.

Jon: So that's the same place? Did you go to different places each day?

Lindsay: Different places… different places each day but different community. Two different communities of people. So we would see local Dominican families, but then we would also see a lot of Haitian immigrants that have come into the Dominican Republic with a lot of the unrest in Haiti. And especially for those Haitian families that may not feel comfortable or safe going into a Dominican hospital, they're able to get really critical care that they might not otherwise have access to.

Jon: Yeah, I've learned about that this week as well that there's that threat of deportation and immigration status with Haitians that are refugees here that the Dominicans are pretty strict about that; gets in the way of them getting some of the resources that they need and getting medical care… yeah.

Lindsay: Yeah.

Holistic Mission: Practical Help and Spiritual Hope [0:07:58]

Jon: Okay, awesome. And that's… one thing that our teams were doing, our church had raised some extra money to bring water filters with us.

Lindsay: Oh wow, yeah.

Jon: And so we would go with -- each day we'd go out, we'd pick a handful of homes. The first house was… or the first day was one house that took the whole morning just because of the conversations that came.

Lindsay: Yeah. Wow, that's amazing.

Jon: It was really cool but… but gave them one of the filters. It uses a 5-gallon bucket. It's supposed to last for 10 years and these are 75 bucks.

Lindsay: Wow.

Jon: You know, so it just made me realize, gosh, you know, that kind of Schindler's List kind of attitude of, gosh, we could have done more, like it's only 75 bucks and this gives them clean water for 10 years.

Lindsay: Yeah.

Jon: That's nuts, and so that was exciting to be able to, first and foremost, meet their practical needs as you're doing.

Lindsay: Yeah.

Jon: And then address the spiritual and talk through that and those other issues that come with that.

Lindsay: Yeah.

Jon: What do you feel like it is that you've learned or what's changed anything inside of you in your mind, thoughts, heart, going through this time?

Lessons From The Journey [0:09:02]

Lindsay: Sure. I think it's something that was so meaningful to me when I first came here a couple of years ago and then it's just been resolidified in my mind is that, for me, medicine is the calling but more than that, the calling is to serve people. I feel so privileged over the last few years of medical school to serve over my rotations in a lot of different fields and while ortho was my passion and I'm so excited to hopefully get to spend the rest of my life serving people through that way, there are so many different ways that we get to show up and serve patients. You got to serve people through these water filters that you provided. We got to serve our patients through the gift of medicine. But I think leading with that heart of service and leading with the goal of coming in and, hey, how can I serve this person's physical needs and their spiritual and their emotional needs just resolidified that in my heart that that's always going to be the goal and medicine is just the way that I get to accomplish that. And it's such a privilege to do that but I never want to lose sight as I start my fourth year and apply for ortho that ultimately serving folks is the goal and the reason that we're all doing this.

Jon: Yup, excellent.

Lindsay: Yeah.

Jon: Anything else you would recommend, or I guess, let me put it this way, what would you recommend for others that want to get involved in something like this? Maybe it's Mission of Hope; maybe it's not. But what would you say to be prepared for as you're talking to other med students that are thinking about something like this?

Words For Those Who Want To Serve [0:10:25]

Lindsay: Yeah, absolutely. I would say, one, if you can connect to a mission that you might be able to do alongside the peers that you have in your cohort at your medical school; maybe even with some of the faculty that you have. It's such a bonding experience to be able to serve people with your classmates and with your faculty. That's been another beautiful part of this week is just getting to build relationships with students that were in my shoes, in the shoes that I was in just a couple of years ago, and getting to build better relationships with our faculty.

Jon: Yeah.

Lindsay: And the second thing I would say is just do it. Find… you know, get online. Do some research, you know. Make sure you're making the right decision and going with the right team. But just do it. Just jump in. Just serve.

Jon: It's like one of those things nobody ever regrets it, right?

Lindsay: Yeah. No one -- you'll never regret just jumping in. You'll learn on the fly. You'll grow. It'll stretch you, but you'll be such a better servant because of it.

Jon: Yeah, that's good. Okay, well, I think that's a ton of stuff. I love sharing these things and seeing these get out.

Lindsay: Yeah.

Jon: Number one for… you know, this organization we've gotten to know, Mission of Hope does some amazing work. But anywhere and everywhere to all the physicians that are watching this or listening to this, again, you've been given a gift. Just the fact that you're becoming a physician is not available to everybody in the world.

Lindsay: Yes, yes.

Jon: It's just not. And it's, yes, you've earned it. Yes, you've put the time. And you or the government or your parents that put a lot money into it, for sure…

Lindsay: Yeah.

Jon: But a lot of it just, you know, being born in the right place, right time, and stuff, and so we always want to remind you to earn that, to give back, to pay it forward to whatever it looks like for you, how do you take that. Now, of course, we want you to do that financially. Giving should be a part of everybody's financial plan.

Lindsay: Yeah.

Jon: But if you can also give with your time and give with your talents and gifts and skills, it's not only going to benefit the world abroad, it's going to benefit you and change you for the better. And then spread the word and I think medicine has got to be one of the biggest needs out there across the globe that we can impact so.

Lindsay: Absolutely, couldn't agree more.

Jon: Any other final thoughts here, Lindsay?

Parting Thoughts [0:12:39]

Lindsay: No. I love what you said. You know, being a physician; getting the opportunity to become a physician is such a huge privilege and working here this week has just been another way to steward that privilege and steward that gift to the best of our ability, so couldn't agree more. Thank you.

Jon: Cool. I love it. Well, again, check out the show notes. We'll have the links. Be sure to spread this around your med school, your residency program. I'm sure they're always looking would you say, Lindsay?

Lindsay: Yeah, yes.

Jon: So, all right, with that, this is Jon from the Financial MD Show, we'll see you next time.

Thanks for joining us for another Financial MD Show. Be sure to head over to financialmd.com to get more in-depth resources on financial tips for physicians and don’t forget to join the Financial MD community group on Facebook, where physicians at all stages of their career gather to share tips and get ideas on achieving true financial success. We’ll see you next time.

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Resources and Links:

· Strategies for planning audition rotations -- https://thedo.osteopathic.org/columns/strategies-for-planning-audition-rotations/

· Mission of Hope - https://missionofhope.com/

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