♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -We, the class of 2026, are embarking on a lifelong pursuit of service and knowledge, training in one of the most diverse counties in the United States of America.

-We, the class of 2026, are embarking on a lifelong pursuit of service and knowledge, training in one of the... -When I was younger, I felt like I had a purpose and my purpose was to help people.

I didn't know how that would turn out, but it turns out that, you know, medicine was the path for me.

-We pledge to exemplify the virtues of doctoring, extending our utmost regard, compassion and service to all individuals who put their trust in our hands.

-We pledge to exemplify the virtues of doctoring, extending our utmost regard, compassion and service to... -I grew up here in the Bronx, about ten minutes away.

My parents are originally from Dominican Republic.

As diverse as the Bronx is, resources are still segregated in the city and, unfortunately, our Black and Brown communities and our low-income families are the people that suffer because of it.

-We will spare no effort in the ongoing battle against health inequities and all forms of prejudice.

-We will spare no effort in the ongoing battle against health inequities and all forms of prejudice.

-Growing up, I passed by Einstein all the time.

It was on my way home from school, but it seemed like a separate world.

As I got older, I kind of realized the magnitude of that.

I was like, "We have a medical school in the Bronx, that's actually pretty cool when you think about it."

I didn't think I would ever study medicine here, but here I am.

-We, the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Class of 2026, accordingly make this oath to our patients, to science, to our communities, and to ourselves today and for the rest of our lives.

-Yay!

[ Cheers and applause ] -Lady, this side.

Yep.

Shift them over.

[ Speaking indistinctly ] Okay, guys, here we go.

All right, arms up, woo!

-Woo!

-Thanks, guys.

♪♪ "The Calling: A Medical School Journey" was made possible in part by: ♪ ♪ -In New York, an enduring memorial rises, the Albert Einstein College of Medicine honoring a scientist who renounced Hitler's Germany in 1933.

-I am grateful that Yeshiva University has honored me by using my name in connection with the new College of Medicine.

There is a shortage of physicians in this country, and there are many young people able and eager to study medicine who, under present circumstances, are deprived of the opportunity to do so.

♪♪ ♪♪ -When I was 14, I knew I wanted to be a doctor.

But the only idea of college that I really had, because I was the first one to go, was, "Oh, you go to whatever school who want to give you a scholarship, and you go play basketball."

College is super expensive, and I knew my family couldn't afford to take me to college.

Basketball, just like, focused me and like, shifted my mindset to a different goal than people that I grew up with.

So it's been a long four years, but going through that journey, every exam you take, every rotation you get through, you know, you're one step closer to the dream.

The goal is to be the first doctor sponsored by Nike.

Ah, usually you gotta be a athlete and... and go to the WNBA to be sponsored, but who knows?

[ Laughs ] -Welcome into the first anatomy lab.

Please make sure if you do wish to uh... touch things and jump into what have you with the cadavers, please make sure have gloves and aprons.

And uh... good luck to everyone.

-If at any time you feel uncomfortable, there are seats behind you, and you can take some air outside.

You never know, know what... who's gonna be triggered, it's a really interesting process.

We want to respect the fact that if you don't feel well, just get out of here.

Okay?

And we'll come check on you, okay?

All right.

So are we ready?

Okay.

I'm sure that she would be fascinated by the fact that we donated... she donated for our observation purposes.

She's a very small cadaver patient.

Look how many intestines she has, like shocking.

-If it was, like, cancerous or anything like that, would it... would it be black or what would the color be now?

-That's a great question.

There's a... there's a variable amount of permutations.

But a lot of times with cancer, you'll feel hard nodularity, particularly in the mesentery and in the functional tissue.

-Yeah.

-So when someone has um... a... an internal bleed, they usually have something called melena, where they'll defecate and it turns black.

Do you folks want to see the appendix?

Oh, you're going to be so shocked.

Alright, you ready?

That's the appendix.

Go ahead and feel it.

Yes.

This floppy structure.

Yes.

-It's so small.

It's so small.

-I know.

It's called a vermiform appendix, because it's a worm-like appendage.

[ Video call ringing ] -Whenever I call my parents they're always like, "What did you learn today?

What, what, what is that?"

And then they're like, I tell them and then they... they correct me on stuff.

"No, you said that wrong.

It's this thing is."

So it's... and they're always like, intrigued about what I'm learning and stuff, but it's also there is a language barrier.

Like, sometimes I tell them, "Oh, we learned about that."

And they're like, "What is that?"

Because they learned it in... in Arabic, right?

I basically grew up in my parents' clinic in Syria.

My dad is a general surgeon and my mom is a OB/GYN.

They were my first inspiration to becoming a doctor, just seeing their life and how they interact with their patients, and how much their patients value them and their work.

There was a civil war in Syria.

Things got closer to home and the, the situation became more dangerous.

So my parents and I moved to... to the U.S. That's where I've been ever since.

But they had to go back to Syria eventually.

We're originally Palestinian refugees.

My grandparents left Palestine back in 1948.

I was basically stateless uh... up until I got the U.S. citizenship.

So the only thing I am, technically, is an American.

I love Syria but I also know how much opportunities I'd be missing out on if I don't study here.

Woo!

If you study in the U.S. and you graduate as a... a U.S. doctor, you can basically work anywhere in the world.

-All right.

So here's my white coat ceremony.

That's my little sister and my little brother.

And then my mom's in the middle.

And this is me and my nieces and nephews.

I'm also in white coat.

This is Christmas, the first Christmas after my brother passed away.

He was murdered the June before I started medical school.

Throughout my life, I went to public schools and they never really prepared me for the next level.

College was hard.

I was not prepared for the workload at all.

But comin' into medical school, I'm like, all I have to do is pass.

If I pass all my tests, I know I'll be a doctor.

But when I got the first couple of quizzes, I didn't pass them.

Then I'm like... ahhh... but then like when I finally buckled down and studied for the exams, like, when I passed my first exam, I'm like, "Oh, wait.

Maybe I could do that."

I think that was like the first shock that I was like, "Oh, I'm...

I'm doin' this.

I'm doin' this.

I'm strugglin' a little bit, but I'm doin' this.

It's hard, but I'm doin' it."

-This is my last year of medical school.

And it's a year where we apply to residencies.

There's a lot of emotions when you're doing all these applications.

I think you're excited because you're almost there and you're nervous because you don't know what's going to happen.

So right now, we're sending applications to these residency programs and they'll get back to us in a couple of months, if they're gonna offer you an interview or not.

You rank your program, how you would want to match from most preferred to least preferred, and then the algorithm kind of does its magic and then you find out.

All the electives we've done, all the programs you've been a part of for the past four years, that's kind of... that's all been workin' up to this kind of moment, when you press "submit."

My top choice would be the family medicine residency at Montefiore here in the Bronx.

I would love to stay here.

I love being here.

I love the Bronx.

I love my people.

-I think you all understand that health care is more than just a person coming in, talking to the doctor, talking to their provider, getting a prescription, and then going home, right?

There are so many different things that impact a person's life on a day-to-day basis, even before they show up at your clinic.

What can we do?

It feels so overwhelming to address social determinants, structural determinants, as a single... not even as a physician.

In your case, as first year medical students.

It's like, this is... feels very overwhelming, this feels very challenging, and I hear you.

But there are different ways that you can get involved.

The first one is just understanding the health care disparities of the communities you're serving.

Especially being in a community like the Bronx.

-So on Saturdays, I try to give some of my time to this uh... community organization.

They're called Grassroots Grocery.

Basically the whole mission is getting healthy foods to the communities that need them.

Right now, actually, I'm delivering the produce that I have to uh... the ECHO Free Clinic, which is where um... a lot of the medical students go and uh volunteer their time on Saturdays as well.

And so hopefully some of the patients that are there, that usually come, you know, from hard working, low-income families can get some fresh produce uh... for free.

-Okay.

Everyone, we're gonna start.

We are a free clinic.

We provide a transition to care model, where we see patients for either two or four visits and that allows us more visits to kind of try to get things under control before we transition them to hopefully our full-time weekday clinic, which runs out of the same buildings.

We are often people's first doctor that they've seen in decades, so it's a really important first line, um... kind of getting things under control.

Often that means that they'll have ten unmanaged problems and it's really challenging, but just recognize that this is the only care people get, and often the first care people get in a really long time.

-A patient just called asking for a refill on their meds?

-Are you sure they're a free clinic patient?

-Oh, I can go look it up now.

-Why don't you check that first, and if they're free clinic, let me look... We have a huge amount of students who are choosing, as I did, to volunteer here.

And many people who end up in medicine... actually, most people end up in medicine are very privileged, have had more limited life experiences, and are going to go into a more narrow, higher money making field.

And many are surprised.

They've never imagined how someone who's working, maybe more than a full-time job, can have no access to insurance, can't possibly afford to buy medication.

I don't think we should be having to rely on a free clinic that I've been able to work at for 22 years.

That makes no sense.

Why is that our system?

But I wouldn't keep doing this work if I didn't think we could change it and that the students who are here feel like we can do this differently.

-Hi, Gertrude.

Okay.

So you're... uh...

I'm told that you were having some pain in your back?

-Yeah.

-Uh.

Let me take a look at your back.

Come sit over here.

So where are you from?

I hear...

I hear some, uh... uh... a little patois from... -I'm from Ghana.

-You're from Ghana?

-Yeah.

-Uh-huh.

That hurt you there?

-No.

-Feel the crepitus?

-No.

-Okay.

-What does the crepitus feel like?

The crepitus.

How does it feel like... -Put your hand here.

-Ahh... -Feel that crunching?

-Mm-hmm.

-All right.

She's got damage to the uh... cartilage, and that's osteoarthritis.

-Okay.

-Feel that... normal... normally it shouldn't... -It shouldn't have that crunching... -She's got it over here, too.

-So it's on both, then.

-Yes.

She's got bilateral... -I was hell bound on becoming a doctor since about my freshman year of high school.

I think it's a privilege to be a doctor and I think it's even more a privilege to be a Black doctor.

I think a lot of people from my background don't see medicine as an option.

They probably don't see people that look like them in those spaces and it can be very daunting for them.

And I think I've been very fortunate to have people kind of help me find a way to succeed.

But I do understand that I have a lot to learn.

-Hi.

-Good morning.

-Takin' a walk?

-Yeah.

-I know.

Sometimes it takes a little bit.

Okay.

Good.

Your lungs sound good, to me.

Okay.

I'm just gonna have you stare straight ahead.

I started volunteering at the ECHO Clinic uh, my first and second years.

We didn't have the medical background yet to actually do the, you know, history, physical, the medical side of it.

But we would try to do more of the social side of it.

And now I'm doing the thing that I signed up for.

Finally.

First two years, all about book learning, lectures.

That sort of thing.

And then third year is about rotations and actually being in the hospital and applying it, seeing patients.

So I started with psychiatry and neurology, and then I did medicine.

And then I had surgery.

It's a whole new way of thinking, it's a whole new language.

Trying to become fluent in something that, you know, you haven't really gotten nearly enough exposure to, and it was hard.

I like really felt like a dumbass every single day.

I'm gonna bend your legs, okay?

Let me know if it hurts.

But I have emergency medicine coming up, which is great.

I like procedures, I like fast paced, I like variety.

Dealing with every single kind of person.

I'm very excited to get to rotate in it.

Okay.

Good.

All right.

-So Lauren, we're getting ready to go back into clerkships.

What are you going into?

-Family Med.

-Brian and Charlie.

Getting ready to go back into clerkships.

Are you excited?

-Totally.

-What are you going into?

-Surgery.

-Whoa... -Yay.

-Good time.

Ben.

We're getting ready to go back into clerkships.

What are you going into?

-Peds.

-Are you excited?

-Me?

Yes, love the kids.

Love the kids.

-Christine, we're going back into clerkships.

What are you going into?

-Internal medicine.

-Are you excited?

-Yeah.

-Aw, she's so cute.

Nobody's excited for medicine ever.

This year, I knew it was gonna be tough taking on this new role.

Introducing myself as student doctor.

You still have exams, so still studying, trying to find time at the end of the work day to study, which is very different than the first two years.

But for me it's more fun 'cause I'm actually getting to practice things.

I am 90 per cent sure that I want to go into pediatric neurology, but my next block is my OB/GYN rotation, which, full disclosure, I'm a little worried about.

Hi, Dr. Simmons.

-Hi.

Nice to meet you.

Is this your first uh... rotation with OB/GYN?

Okay.

Great.

I like to try to give you a little bit of my philosophy on how to care for patients.

You have to think about how populations have been marginalized and how the communication has occurred in the past and... and how much um... work we have to do to really improve the communication between the doctor and patient.

The outcomes for people of color, just in general, with health care, are um... significantly uh... worse.

But I have found that patients tend to follow, if I have a good relationship with them.

And that starts from the first encounter with the patient.

I don't know if you reviewed the charts yet, but my first patient... -I did.

-...prior to pregnancy, she had some difficulties.

The patient's 36 weeks and the baby's breech position.

[ Knock on door ] -Hi, Ms. Ramirez?

-Hey.

-My name's Cory.

I'm the medical student working with Dr. Simmons today.

Is it okay if we chat a little bit?

-Sure.

Hi.

How are you?

-So correct me if I'm wrong, but I think last time they checked on baby, she was breech.

-Mm-hmm.

-Her feet were down?

-Yes.

-And you have an ultrasound later today.

-Today, yes.

-Okay.

So has Dr. Simmons talked with you about different options, if Annabella is still feet first?

-I might need a C-section.

-Okay.

All right.

How are you feeling about that, about the possibility of a C-section?

-I'm okay.

Yeah, I... it's what it is.

-Yeah.

There we go.

I'm just going to let Cory feel.

So you're trying to feel for the head in here.

So you know, I'm right-handed, so your thumb and your second finger.

And you put your other hand here.

And you try and determine if it's the head or not.

And I know it's hard to feel.

Um... but when I was feeling, it seems like this is actually... this is wide, this is probably the baby's bottom.

This is the back here and these are probably the legs here.

So let's get the... um... Doppler.

Might be head down.

[ Heartbeat whirring ] That's maternal.

Try on this side.

I just checked her pulse.

[ Faster heartbeat whirring ] -There we go.

-I'm hopeful that we're head down.

-Yeah?

Me too.

-Okay.

Sounds good.

Once I get some help here.

Here.

Here.

Here.

-Thank you.

-No problem.

Okay.

Oo.

Once I get the report um... from the ultrasound, then I'll call you, and then we'll determine if we need to schedule a C-section.

If we need to schedule a C-section, even um... on the day of C-section, if the baby's head is down, then we can change the... decision and we'll go for an induction.

Okay?

-I thought I was going to hate this rotation.

I had no interest in OB/GYN.

I did not want to stare at vaginas all day.

I was very much opposed to it.

And I have been so surprised.

[ Chuckles ] Um...

I have really kind of had to walk that back and really rethink it.

I know we need more Black women in OB/GYN, so I'm not gonna rule it out completely.

-Thank you.

-Oh.

No problem.

No problem.

I'll see you... -Do I like it enough to go into OB/GYN?

I don't know.

-Comparative.

Isn't that... -It's not.

Yeah.

Comparative leads me to think linkage analysis.

Right?

But... oh, no.

No, no, no.

-No, no, no.

-I feel like I should know these.

I'll be the first doctor in my family.

It was definitely a challenge to get into medical school.

It was years... years of work, you, you could say, even before college.

I'm participating in the U.S. Army Health Profession Scholarship Program.

Over the next four years they will be paying for my entire medical school tuition.

I'll be receiving a monthly stipend for living expenses.

I will have about 45 days out of the year where I will be doing active duty trainings.

Other than that, I'll be in the reserves for the next four years and I will graduate as a U.S. army physician.

And you just have to, if we just go back and look at the scales that they were... -Yeah.

-If there's uh... enough differences like in these variations, that's like it'll... it'll be a variant or something like that.

-Okay.

-Right?

Or something like that.

-Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

No, that makes sense... oh, God... [ Both laugh ] -One out of five.

Okay.

That was a little scary, getting one out of five the first time.

-Yeah.

Yeah.

-But that's okay.

♪♪ ♪♪ -Hello.

Thank you.

♪♪ Financial burden is an issue getting into medicine.

Tuition is... is a big thing.

I mean, I...

I, I'm very lucky in the sense that when I got into Einstein, I was offered a scholarship and so that relieved a lot of stress in that scenario.

But even with that, you know, tuition is... is still rising.

It's $50,000 a year.

And once you take out loans and you pay the school what you owed, whatever you get back to live off of, could be less than $20,000 a year and you're still expected to, you know, pay rent, eat.

I think it severely compromises the amount of diversity that we have within medicine.

For most people, it doesn't seem worth it or they just simply just don't know how they'd be able to manage it.

-My big ass fingers.

-Thank you.

It's like the feet's supposed to be one way...

So this year I'll be applying to radiology for residency.

Radiology is like a puzzle.

Like trying to piece together like what images you do have to try to find out what this patient is going through.

It was like a game of "Where's Waldo?"

I loved it.

I'm still working on finishing up my personal statement, but I'm struggling right now.

Like what picture do I choose like being conscious of, "Oh, if I wear my curly Afro, is that going to prevent me from a school like looking at that picture and be like, "Oh, maybe we shouldn't interview this person."

I don't want like my hair to be something that would stop me from getting a interview.

But if a place don't want to interview you because of your hair, then that's not a place you would want to be.

A lot of people that look like me are the nurses in the hospital.

Even now, like and... if I'm on rotations, like, I'll get, "Oh... oh, my nurse said this, this and this."

After they had a conversation with me.

Like we're not expected to be the doctors and I wanted to like push that boundary.

Representation matters, it really matters.

-We'll cover you guys.

We'll come the next day.

-I like that.

It's good.

It's good stuff.

Good stuff.

More genuine smiles this time.

-Yeah.

You're really good.

-Day in the life... medicine clerkship.

So that was me and Amy in the elevator.

Now we're walking to the shuttle.

It's like 6:10, dark.

Sad.

Um... got to the hospital early, got some breakfast, and... yeah.

Uh... and then I had a Zoom in the afternoon, which was fun.

Then I realized I had an assignment due next week that I forgot about, so I logged into Epic to check on my patients instead of doing actual studying.

And here I am pretending to study.

And while I study, I listen to Animal Crossing music.

Do not judge me.

And then, Lauren, Isha and I watched Hell's Kitchen 'cause it was Thursday.

-[ Speaking fast-forwarded ] Unfortunately while exploring and two of them are bitten by snakes.

They take them both to the emergency room.

They're treated with anti-snake venom.

They both recover rapidly in the home.

One week later both of them... -It's been about a month uh...

I feel like, since the start of uh... is it a month or is it two months, I feel...

I don't even know.

I can't keep track anymore.

It's... it's just like time is flying by, honestly.

Uh... A month and a half, I'm gonna say.

I think it's been a month and a half since the start.

But, yes.

Don't quote me on that, so... [ Laughs ] ♪♪ -The one thing I did hear before starting medical school, you have to learn how to learn.

And I also learned, you have to learn how to adjust.

You have to get comfortable being uncomfortable.

-[ Double speed ] It's not needed by... -I used to go to lectures at the beginning, like the first week, not so much the second week.

And then afterwards, I...

I stopped going to lecture, just because watching lectures at two times speed is basically just reducing my workload by half.

-So what is happening here?

What happens to... -I've always, like, heard that uh... it's gonna be super hard but I thought I would have it like, "Oh, I...

I...

I...

I went to a hard school in undergrad, I'll have it managed.

People are like, overdramatizing it or like it's exaggerated."

But it was actually that.

It was like really a lot of stuff.

And I didn't anticipate it to be as hard as it is.

♪♪ ♪♪ -So Cameron, I want to go over the surface anatomy here, right?

It'll help you understand a little bit about where you are, et cetera.

So right here is the confluence of the scapular spine, the back of your AC joint.

You can feel a little spot there.

-Yeah.

-Right?

You can feel the clavicle right there.

-Yeah.

-See the knife, please.

And incision.

That's our scope.

And once we look at the screen, we know we're in because we see the little blood vessels.

Let's get the arm down a little bit.

We can turn the optics on the camera, look in different directions.

Without even moving our hand, we can just kind of scoot around and turn.

So a lot of degenerative fraying at the periphery of the labrum.

And we don't know if it's frankly torn just yet.

We haven't kind of gotten a great look at it yet.

-It's... it's been great to get in the hospital and really take all of that two years of knowledge that was put into my head and actually use it.

-And so we're just going to gently kind of... All right.

So there's some issue with the back of the labrum.

We're going to take, I think, a closer look at that uh... and then we'll look at the front of the labrum.

So can I have you hold this again, Cameron?

And we're going to start taking some pictures.

So, you can take pictures... -I like the hands-on aspect of it.

As a child, my dad, anything that needed to be fixed, he wanted to teach me.

So I feel like my orthopedics didn't start a few weeks ago.

I feel like it started in my childhood when my dad would hand me a drill and tell me, you know, "All right, this is what you got to do to hold it steady."

Just teach me like little techniques like that.

-Good?

-Uh-huh.

Keep going.

Almost there.

That's it.

No, you're down.

-Okay.

-It's down.

-Can we get the key?

Yeah.

Okay.

-Little blood through the uh... -Hit a little harder, please.

There we go.

Good.

Let's get the suture around.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -Hey... -Hey, Dr. Phang.

-How are you, Andrew?

How's it goin'?

-Good.

Good to see you.

-Good to see you.

It's been a minute.

How's it goin'?

-It's goin' all right.

Dr. Phang is a long-term mentor of mine.

He kind of really just showed me what it means to not only be a physician, just be an advocate for the community, and I really aspire to be like him.

-So how's it been this year, so far?

What's... -It's... it's been good.

It's been good.

It's been tough.

-How diverse is your class?

Like, what's the breakdown?

-It's about 66 percent female.

-Okay.

-And um...

I think it's about 16 per cent uh... people of color, amongst the whole spectrum.

-And then if you tease out Blacks, how many would you... -That's a good question.

I haven't thought of a specific number.

In my class?

Four... 14, 214... 20, yes.

-Okay, that's not bad.

When I went to medical school, there were five Black students.

-Really.

-Out of a... a class of uh, uh... 200.

-Wow.

-Yeah.

So you have what, tripled me, maybe.

But don't forget to pay it forward, because, you know, pretty much... if you look at the double AMC numbers, you know, it's still physician is really only three per cent Black males of the entire, you know, um... physician population in the United States.

When I left medical school, it's probably two.

So we have gained a per cent in... you know, practicing for almost 20 years.

But um...

I just can't wait for you to be done because um...

I just think you're going to be so amazing, not just because you're smart, but because you really care.

The patient/doctor interaction is all about relationships.

The other piece, the illness, the... you work those things out, but it's the relationship, I think, that keeps the whole thing going.

-I don't think you need to, like, rely on this, but you have just in case... -Just the background.

-Yeah.

-Okay.

-He's in this room.

-Yeah, he's in his room.

We'll ask him.

-Okay.

This is nerve-wracking.

-Huh?

-Nervous... it's fine.

-Oh, what are you nervous for?

-Just in general.

It's fine.

-All right.

-It's fine.

It's gonna be fine.

-This is Andrew.

He's a first-year medical student.

-Hello.

-How are you?

Uh... is it okay if he comes and asks you questions about your history?

Yeah.

Yeah.

-How are you feelin' today?

-I'm feeling okay.

-Can you tell me a little bit more about, you know, what brought you to Burke?

-Uh.

I got a...

I got shot.

-Okay.

Was it like to a right... was it right side?

-My right side.

-MmHmm.

-And then it bounced, it hit my... my spinal cord.

-Okay.

-And it bursted my L... below my L1.

-Okay.

-So they say I ain't got no feelings in my legs.

-Okay.

-But I can get it back.

That's like... like my goal is for me to walk to my daughter and pick her up.

-Mm-hmm.

-And I got to be like a little depressed, because I'm not gonna be there for my baby... my baby's birthday.

-Mm-hmm.

-But it's like, I'm gonna be there afterwards.

-Mm-hmm.

-Then hopefully by then I can walk to her, pick her up, surprise her.

You know.

Other than that, like, that's my main focus right now.

-How has the uh... the pain been now?

-It's off and on.

-Off and on?

-Yeah.

Like when I go to sleep, my back stiffens up.

-Okay.

-So when I wake up, it's like I've locked in one position.

I figure, like the end of the summer, I sh... by then I should have control on how I pee, how I doo-doo.

When I don't have to depend on me puttin' my finger in my butt to doo-doo.

-Mm-hmm.

-Yeah.

But my main focus, for me to catch an erection.

-Hmm.

-That's basically it.

-Okay.

Okay.

Um... okay.

Let me think.

Is there anything else I wanted to ask you in terms of... so you're saying pain, it ranges, like... -Yeah.

-Like you do a general... you've got to say between zero and ten.

On average... -It's like a seven.

-It's usually a seven?

-They... they, they got medication like Oxys and all that.

Then they switched me off of that and was giving me morphine.

-Mm-hmm.

-Then I...

I, I stopped them from giving me all that.

-Okay.

-It's like, I'm...

I'm gonna do this myself.

-I appreciate you giving me some time to speak with you and a little bit learn about your story.

-No problem.

-And I wish you the absolute best in your recovery.

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

Appreciate it.

[ Siren wailing ] -I've had some shifts for the last two weeks in the emergency department.

It's been really, really great.

Like very hands on, one of the most uh... involved rotations, I think.

I mean, a lot of people think emergency medicine is constantly exciting, but a lot of it is patients who are presenting with this problem or that problem.

Um...

But really, underneath that is the desire for somewhere to sleep for the night or for food or for medications.

I'm seeing like how a lot of these, you know, chronic medical conditions and also just like societal issues come to an acute presentation in the emergency department.

So you kinda see a lot of these kinds of things.

And to me, that's very interesting.

Um...

I think emergency medicine isn't just medicine, it's also social medicine.

It's... it's public health.

It's global health.

It's so many other things.

[ Siren wailing ] -All right.

What are the first words that come to your mind when you think "opioid addiction"?

Try to challenge yourself to put in one word and just see how it compares to everyone else's words.

So, the words epidemic, pain, fentanyl, methadone, stigma, Narcan.

Those are the biggest words I see.

That's great because you guys are already way more attuned to this than the rest of the general public.

But there are a lot of words on there I see such as trauma, dead, difficult, dangerous.

I really hope that by the end of the day, you have some tools to go with those scary sounding words.

We want you to know what is affecting our neighborhoods.

Because in all of New York City, top four neighborhoods every single year, that have the highest rates of overdose, are all in the Bronx.

One person died of a drug overdose every three hours.

Can you imagine that?

But terribly, only one in ten people get treatment.

That is ridiculous, right?

In what world are we okay with that?

-Could you bridge someone, like methadone to be broken, or like vice versa?

Like, let's say someone can't go every single day.

Like, it's just not feasible for them.

And you want to take them... switch them to something more convenient.

-Yes.

That's a great question.

You diagnose the patient and you know they're uncomfortable and you want to offer treatment.

This is what we're trying to tell you to do because your attendings might not be the ones who are ready to do that, okay?

-You guys might be more ready than your faculty... -So you guys are already like, "How do I offer it?

How do I offer it?"

Your attending is going, "Yeah.

I don't know.

Maybe they're drug seeking.

Maybe they have... they're malingering.

Maybe they're up to no good."

-Yeah.

-That is the typical... typically what is happening in the hospital.

But hopefully you're going to be training at a hospital where hospital protocols are available.

We're just showing you, cross the first hurdle, make the correct diagnosis and recognize you can offer treatment.

-Dios Todopoderoso En el hombre de Jesucristo, tu hijo, te pido que ayudes a Alexandra Pérez en su examen para entrar a la escuela de Medicina de Albert Einstein.

Amén.

-Alex, "Oh, mommy stress...

stress."

I said, "No worry.

The petition is here."

Everything you asked in the name of Jesus is gonna be done.

And I... -Mm-hmm.

It was right.

You were right.

-Uh-huh... -You predicted it.

-She predicted it.

-Yes.

-Into existence... -Yes.

-I love how she was very direct.

Like... -About this school... -This particular school.

-This school.

-So, like, when do you officially become, like, a doctor or like, when does that title... -So you officially become "doctor" after you graduate med school.

So when I graduate, I'll be a doctor.

I'll be like, "My name's Dr.

Perez."

You know what I mean... -How many you apply?

How many?

-I applied to 20 programs and... -Twenty?

-Yes.

Um.

Some people apply to more, like some... so like family medicine is considered not a competitive specialty.

So like some people will apply to, like, 50 programs, 100 programs.

You have to pay for every app... -No, not for me.

-So, yeah, obviously it becomes prohibitive for a lot of people.

-So at what point did you say, "I want to be a doctor"?

-I was kind of just like in the line of thinking of... there was a lot of people who won't do what they want to do because their health isn't taken care of.

But people trust doctors, you have the most private parts of their life.

You know what I mean?

Like, there'll be somebody who's being abused at home and won't tell anybody, but, you know, a doctor might be the person who notices it when you're doing an exam.

-Yeah.

-Um... or can get them the resources that they need.

That can change somebody's life 100 percent.

-Mm-hmm.

♪♪ ♪♪ -Each rotation that we have, um... we're in a different specialty.

And at the end of the six-week rotation, uh... we take a big exam on all the different topics um... from that specialty.

So tomorrow I show what I've learned about little kids.

[ Laughs ] -It's 110 questions per... per shelf exam, 90 seconds per question, 110 questions.

So gotta know your stuff.

-With rotations, you kinda have to put everything else on hold.

There's so much information to learn.

And there's just like kind of this guilt whenever you're doing something.

It's like, "Oh, I should be studying right now."

"Oh, God, I haven't done nearly enough practice questions.

I have not learned about all these random disorders.

I need to like go into crunch time."

I would say like five hours a day, maybe, after going to work at the hospital.

-I'll put in anywhere between like six to ten or twelve, just depending on how much time I have.

-Not that all of that is productive.

A lot of it is me taking snack breaks or stretching breaks or like crying breaks... not crying breaks.

I keep saying I cry.

I don't...

I actually haven't cried at all this rotation, but spiritually crying a little bit.

[ Laughs ] -Hello, it's misery.

So yesterday I was having my meltdown.

I literally was like, I could have gone into consulting.

Like, I literally had this moment where I was like, I really, truly wish that I had gone into consulting and like was on vacation right now, making six figures, living my best life.

-Yeah.

-I went from 87 percent correct, to 37 on this exam.

-You're not studying and learning less.

That's not how it works.

It's just like sometimes one test will happen to ask you about like every area that you have a gap.

-Things I don't know.

-But then you learn all those things and you move on.

-I guess.

-It'll be fine.

-I am so dehydrated because of how much I cried yesterday and a little bit this morning.

-Yeah.

-They'll just, like, run down.

I'm like, no, just keep... just keep going.

It'll pass.

It'll pass, you know?

This, too, shall pass.

I don't know if I will.

-[ Laughs ] I think you will pass.

And this will pass.

-In two weeks.

In two weeks.

-So, cheers.

To not being a med student right now.

Cheers.

It feels like you should always be doing something productive for your future in medical school.

[ Indistinct conversations ] It's really tough to feel this like guilt that you're not doing what you should be doing.

-All right.

We're at the Botanical Gardens now.

It seems like a nice place.

I don't like the gardens too much, but here's nature.

-Medical school is a huge undertaking and it may mean having to temporarily sacrifice some of the more like...

I don't know.

Like unruly, spontaneous parts of yourself uh... to achieve what needs to be achieved in order to save people's lives.

-Oh, you're the -- -It's a video.

It's just a video.

-It's never not gonna be that there's something productive you could be doing instead.

Say hi, everybody.

-Hello... -Yo.

Just finished that exam, get a nice workout after.

-If you keep putting off your peace of minds and your life 'til there's no pressure, you'll never have it.

-Surprise!

[ Laughter ] -Oh, my God.

[ Laughter ] -So you have to learn how to have peace of mind and live your life regardless.

[ Gospel music playing ] ♪♪ -♪ Lord, you are awesome ♪ ♪ Lord, you are awesome ♪ ♪ If it wasn't for your love ♪ ♪ If it wasn't for your grace ♪ ♪ I don't know where I'd be without you ♪ -This young lady right here.

-Amen.

-Everybody in the building knows how I feel about her.

[ Cheers and applause ] Yeah.

God bless Le'Shauna as she prepares to make her decision about what she's gonna do next in the field of medicine.

-It was important for me to go to school in the Bronx just because most of my family is still here, but I personally don't want to stay in New York City.

I grew up in a rough neighborhood and I'm just like over the city life.

It's just too much goin' on and it's not a place that I really want to raise my kids.

I just feel like it's easy for them to get caught up in like my family's history or whatever.

So this is the park I grew up in.

Uh...

I learned how to play basketball here.

Climb trees, climb gates.

This is the sprinkler... we would cut this water on and we would play... have water fights here.

Cut this hydrant on.

-This is the building I grew up in.

This is where I moved to, right here, 104.

And this is where they father actually got killed.

Right here.

That store right there, they grandfather got killed when they father was small.

When they were small, they father got killed right here.

This is the spot where he fell.

Right here.

A guy that he knew, say, "Homeboy, let me talk to you for a minute."

He was talkin' right here, duh-duh-duh.

I see my baby daddy walk... um... my... they father walked away.

The guy pulled out the gun.

He tried to hit him, but the first bullet like put him down.

So he fell right here and got killed.

-I was seven.

-Seven.

Mm-hmm.

-Yup.

I heard the gunshots.

I was upstairs on the fifth floor.

-That yeah... she was up that apartment right there, up on the fifth floor.

Yeah.

We got a lot of death here.

It's just sad.

♪♪ ♪♪ -Rapid response, room 312.

Rapid response, room 312.

[ Laughter ] -Sir, can you hear us?

-[ Moaning ] -What's the patient's name?

-Uh... he's Tom.

-Um... yeah.

So he's just not acting right.

Um... -Sir, can you hear us?

-[ Moaning ] -Oh, he's moaning.

-He's moaning.

-Can we listen to breath sounds?

-Yeah.

-Can he feel this?

-Do you want me to give the morning meds?

-What are his morning meds?

-Yeah.

Where are his morning... -Uh... insulin, Lantus... -Sir.

Sir... [ Students speak indistinctly ] -Should we shock and do compressions?

-Um, all right.

-Already started compressions.

-Um... he needs something hard underneath him.

[ Monitor beeping ] [ Indistinct conversations ] -Go.

Okay.

-Okay.

Lay him back down.

Continue.

-Okay.

-Hey, um... his niece is downstairs in the lobby.

She'd like to come up.

-Tell her not... -Not right now.

-Do you want any labs?

-Yes, please.

-Yes.

Can we get an ECG?

-Okay.

Chest rise... -What else do you want?

-CBC... -CBCs, CMP, a finger stick glucose... -Yeah.

-Your blood tests should be back in a minute.

-Uh... -The ECG... -So we're gonna stop here.

-Sure.

-So how did we do?

-He did die.

-He did die.

Yeah.

-And we did our best.

-But you brought him back.

-Yeah.

-That's good.

Now, while the code is going on, you did not let the family member come up.

Would anybody argue that you should have let the family member come up?

-Um... to like ask what their... like wishes were, if they were like... if they knew if their uncle was like DNR or DNI.

-Okay.

That should be in the chart, but absolutely getting to know what the patient's goals of care are, very, very important.

So when I'm in the ICU and we're running a code, I'm always at the foot of the bed, right?

Right next to me is a family member.

Why do I keep the family member there?

Because I want them to see that we are doing everything humanly possible for their loved ones.

Who are they gonna believe more, you or the family member that was here?

-If you go outside... "We did everything we possibly could."

"Oh, Doc, you just were tired.

You didn't want to do anything."

Or are they gonna believe the family member that was here and says, "Oh, no, no.

They worked their tail off.

And they tried."

-Are you good with this?

This explains so much.

-This is great.

Where's the bangles?

-I love it.

Um.

-Look at her face.

-I was really into it.

I had a lot of emotional depth as a three-year-old.

-You should, you should go into theater.

-Medicine had always been something that was kind of in the back of my mind growing up.

Kind of can't help but get interested when you grow up seeing pictures of your brain all the time.

When I was three years old, I started having these kind of weird vision changes and nobody knew where they were coming from.

Not the pediatrician.

I went to, you know, the ophthalmologist.

Nobody knew.

So I got an MRI and they found a pineal cyst.

By the grace of God, it was something that was benign.

Throughout, you know, the years between three and seven, it was something I'd go get an MRI every year just to check on it, make sure it wasn't growing.

And then when I was seven, all of a sudden I got these really, really intense headaches.

Long story short, I had developed hydrocephalus.

Basically, it was a whole bunch of fluid that had accumulated in my brain, and that fluid was putting so much pressure on my brain... it's where the headaches were coming from... that had actually started to make my eye turn in.

-There was never a doubt that she was going to be fine.

There was never... this... this child had stuff to do in her life.

Did... did she tell you how we even got there with the monitoring her of this?

They sit us down.

They said, "Well, we have to do surgery."

And we're like, "Okay, well, this is some serious real estate here.

We want a second opinion."

And they looked at each other and they... they looked back at us and he says, "Perhaps I'm not explaining myself.

Your daughter will die within 24 hours if we don't drain this fluid from her brain."

So, you know... and... and Frederick and I were like, "Oh, by all means.

Do what you need to do," you know?

-We know how to talk to people and we have or had the right people in place who would push for us and for the need as well.

So, no, we... we weren't afraid of not getting what we wanted.

We have education.

We know we can ask questions.

And I think that helps a lot in situations.

When you don't have that, the background experience to delve into why things need to happen, how they're gonna happen.

Then you do become a victim in some circumstances, because you don't think you have abilities to fight back.

-Just finished the labor and delivery shift.

Uh... thought I'd reflect on my day.

It was quite chaotic.

It started off uh... with one attending making another attending cry, and then me scrubbing into a C-section right after.

Basically what happened with that... with the uh... with the debacle, uh... between attendings was that the one who was working and signing out the patient had decided to kind of let the patient have natural delivery by uh... you know, just like, let the labor progress.

Uh...

Whereas the other attending was like, "Why would you do that?

Like the patient... you know, that's... you should just do a C-section, get it out."

Um...

It just made me wonder, uh... because as we were all kind of prepping the patient to go into surgery, um... all the nurses were kind of sad and I asked why.

And they were like, "This person shouldn't have to have a C-section if she wanted to deliver vaginally."

And definitely made me reflect on some practices in medicine and how we can make that better.

And where the problems lie, too.

Um... yeah.

What a day.

Now time to sleep.

[ Siren wailing ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -My family definitely influenced me on the path to going to medical school.

When I was three years old, my father passed away in 9/11.

He was a firefighter.

That's really the stem of all of what my values are today.

I grew up surrounded by this idea of, you know, what it meant to be a hero, to live a life of honor and sacrifice and service.

I really couldn't think of any other way of how to live, by just figuring out how to do something as honorable as what all those men and women did on that day.

I didn't necessarily want to do the same exact thing, I just wanted to do something that was also honorable.

[ Gunshots ] -What are you gonna do?

You need to get down and what... prone.

Get down.

[ Explosion pops ] All right.

You hear casualties in the distance, asking for help, and they're U.S. military.

Four casualties to your left.

One student per casualty.

-Yes, sir.

-Yeah.

Right there.

-Move, move.

-Sir, right there.

Next one?

-Right leg, sir?

-Right leg, sir.

"X" marks the spot.

-All right.

First thing, you expose the injury.

Injury's already exposed.

Start applying the tourniquet.

Medicine seemed like a perfect solution for how I wanted to accomplish my mission, to change life for the better.

The health care system in this country right now... definitely, I think, needs a lot of work.

And I think a lot of students my age are realizing that.

We have to learn kind of how to tackle those issues at its source.

I'm really experiencing first hand and learning first hand what exactly needs to be done.

-Where is your list on this thing?

-It's one of those little tabs.

-The whole thing, or just that tab?

-Uh... that tab is fine.

-All right.

So what am I looking at?

And this is how you're ranking in the residency programs.

-Yes.

The actual radiology programs.

-And this is where I feel like I shouldn't have any say at all, because... -But that's not true, because... -But I'm not dealing with any of this stuff.

-Already established that.

Duke is number one.

-You did establish that.

-I like the communication I'm having with them.

They're looking out for me.

And then I also really like Hopkins.

-You like Hopkins with... but do you like Baltimore?

-I don't hate Fell's Point.

I really...

I...

I don't... -That's such a... That's like sayin' I love Central Park but I hate Manhattan.

Like... -I understand that.

That's fair.

But, I do think I could tough it out, for the program.

-For four, five, six years.

-Yes.

I think if I land that in any of my top six, I would be fine.

It's just, from seven, you start gettin' into the New York category.

-Yeah.

-Of all things.

-And then... -And that's why like I'm, this is kind of fluid um... based on where you want to live.

'Cause I like all these programs almost equally.

-I'm cool with this.

-I'm also not opposed to this.

Stay.

Uh-uh-uh-uh... stay.

Go!

Go, puppa.

Go, go, go.

Just wanted to get him to run a little... -I'm engaged.

[ Laughs ] His name is Malik.

We met in high school.

We've been living um... in the Einstein apartments for a couple of years now, since I started here.

I don't know if I would've gotten through it without him.

So I am packing the last of our stuff because we're moving off campus.

So we're actually moving with Malik's grandmother.

Um... we're still gonna be in the Bronx, a little more uptown.

This year, I turn 26.

I was on my mother's health insurance, but when you turn 26 you have until the end of that month to find new insurance because you don't have insurance anymore.

The cheapest plans had monthly payments of like five to $600 and then the deductible, God forbid anything happened to you, was like seven thousand.

I was like, there's absolutely no way a medical student who does not get paid, um... can afford that.

What a lot of people end up doing is not getting health insurance.

They just don't go to their doctor, because if I have to choose between having food on the table versus the potential of something happening and needing to get health insurance, that's a no brainer for most people.

I'm choosing the place where I know where I'm going to sleep and that my kids are fed.

♪♪ -Back in undergrad, when I used to work in a clinic, I was in a more rural area of Georgia, so they were usually not used to like uh... non like white people, to be honest.

Uh...

So they were always like, "Oh, well, your accent is like different.

Where is it from?"

Uh... and then I uh...

I tell them, "Well, I'm like from Syria."

No, I never like a bad reaction from anyone.

I think I used to be, like, more annoyed by it when people like, mispronounce my name or like they're like, "Oh, it's different and stuff."

But like now, I think I embrace the uniqueness of it.

Like, I like...

I like people asking about it, even if it like... people are like misspelling it or like mispronounce it.

I get Garth, I get... sometimes they don't even h-... hear "TH."

It's just Gai.

Uh... no one ever says Ghaith, which is like the actual pronunciation.

♪♪ -Hello.

How are you today?

-Morning.

-I have a first-year medical student with me today, from Einstein.

-Great.

-All right.

Uh... any chest pains, chest heaviness?

-No.

-Chest squeezing?

-No, no.

-Good.

-Had a little issue with that, beginning of January, because I had COVID.

-Okay.

-Fully vaccinated, boosted.

-Yeah.

Exactly.

And that's why you did fine.

-After seein' trucks, refrigerated trailers... -Yeah.

Exactly.

-...outside of hospitals during the height in '20 and '21... -Right.

Right.

-That's the last thing I wanted to go through.

-Exactly, but you'd be surprised.

Even in Westchester County, there are people who have never taken one vaccine.

Okay, Ghaith is going to listen with me to your back and your chest, okay?

-All right.

Give it a shot.

-Some deep breaths.

Deep breath.

Deep breath.

Good.

Let... here... -I always wanted to go into the cardiology field, and I think following Dr. Charney only like I think made me want to do it more.

-In and out, at yea... one more time.

-Patient interactions, that was a little bit of a new thing for me.

-The other side... -While I definitely am empathetic, it's something new to me to like show these emotions.

My mom and dad do that very like seamlessly and like I never thought about that cognitively.

Like, yeah, they like actually like try to do that.

I thought that was just part of their character.

-Super.

Again, his cardiac and lung exam is normal, As you're aware, most people have something by the time they reach 75, you know?

-They gotta... they gotta get to 75 first.

-Right.

Exactly.

You know, but... they make it... -I don't know most things, or almost everything about like medicine, right?

So... but it's mostly going through those motions, knowing how to interact with a patient.

And I think that's the most important part.

-So everything looks fine.

All good news.

-You definitely can be a better doctor by improving those skills.

You're able to better treat the patient, I feel like, and get a more holistic view of, okay, that... it's not just this problem.

There's other things going on in his life.

And that's... he... the patients usually open up when you're... they can trust you more, then you feel like you're... they have a better relation with you.

[ Sirens wailing ] -Had to wash the awfulness of today off of me before talking about it.

But um, it's a day of low-lows, and minuscule highs.

Um.

So we had a 20-something-year-old come to the ED uh... in cardiac arrest.

Everyone was running around trying to save this person's life, and push medicines, and... you know, this and that.

And as a student, my role would have been to do the chest compressions, but that job was already taken.

So I was just kinda standing to the side and watching the life and death chaos go on before me.

At some point, I turned around, and I...

I made eye contact with this woman who was standing right outside the room, and she looked absolutely horrified.

And I guess that it was maybe a family member of this person who was only like 24.

Um...

Anyway, after some time, they had to call it.

Um... they had to call the time of death.

And like I've seen people die before.

Um... and it wasn't... so I wasn't spiraling.

I was just sorry, and somber that a life had been lost.

But it's when I left the room and um... right outside the room I saw the older woman who... you know, she was speaking in Spanish and... and trying to get into the room, and she looked so frantic.

All I could see was like this hope that what had already happened, what I knew was already done... wasn't the case, and their hopes were just completely in vain 'cause we'd already pronounced him dead.

It made me realize that it's important as a student to just go through those phases of hardening myself to it all, because we can't just jump right to being that compassionate, detached physician persona who sees suffering and loss and is able to detach in a form that allows them to keep doing their job.

You have to... you have to feel your way through it and you have to be sad, and you have to step outside and cry for 20 minutes.

Um... and call your mom, and feel that before you can be able to be the doctor who saves lives and sees the loss of life without feeling it in there.

[ Sighs ] ♪♪ ♪♪ -Hello.

-Hello.

-How are you?

Are you trying to show them how to find a vein?

-Yeah.

-Oh, wow.

That's so cool.

So which one do we... You're using the red one, right?

So you have it.

Listen.

You've got it between your ears?

I'll put it on for you.

So we are here in Brooklyn, my hometown, trying to work with 3rd graders, 4th graders, 5th graders.

It's really inspiring.

Talking about mentorship makes me think about how there were countless times that I was shy or very confused, just very nervous, and seeing 3rd graders, 4th graders, 5th graders in this fashion really motivated me to think about me when I was trying to find out what I had to do.

-This whole container... -And no one can truly do things on their own.

So I firstly want to make sure that I mentor, because if Dr. Phang didn't mentor me, where would I be?

-Bring it, man.

I'll see you soon, alright?

-Okay.

-Hi.

Hi, guys.

-Hi, how are you?

-Hello.

-How are you?

Hi, Gia.

-Hi.

-I'm Dr. Patel.

-My name's Cory.

I'm a medical student.

It's nice to meet you.

-Nice to meet you, too.

-How you doin'?

-Good.

-Is this Mom?

-Yes.

-Hi.

Nice to meet you.

I'm Cory.

So I heard it was your birthday tomorrow.

-Mm-hmm.

-How old are you turning?

-Ten.

-That is fantastic.

So the first thing I'm going to do is I'm going to look at your eyes.

So we talked about how the medicine sometimes can give you blurry vision.

It can also make your eyes do this weird, like, shake thing sometimes.

So what I'm going to do is I'm gonna look at your eyes, and we're gonna look to see if that's happening.

It's been such a long journey for me with a lot of ups and downs.

And this year, including today, it's been the first time that I see what my life could look like beyond this part of the journey.

So you're going to like a brand new school and everything?

-Yeah.

-Are you excited?

-Yeah.

-Getting to spend time in the pediatric / neurology clinic... it helps me to think about the big picture and kind of less about all of the different things that I have to jump through and get over to get there.

It's like a reminder of what this is all for.

You're helping me learn.

Thank you so much.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -Hello.

-Me llamo Chetali.

Soy estudiante de Medicina.

Just to start off confirming a few things.

Do you have insurance right now?

-No.

-¿Y tiene seguro...?

-No.

-Okay.

I see in the chart it says you're here for an STD?

So why do you think you have an STD?

-No.

I want him to get tested... -Uh-huh.

-...because we are... we want to have a baby, and we are trying to... we're not... we don't use protection any more.

-Okay.

-So we don't want to use protection anymore, so I want to make sure that he's safe, because I know I'm safe.

-Gotcha.

Okay.

-Okay?

-Do you have any medical problems?

-Entonces, vamos a empezar con la historia general.

-No.

-And I'm actually going to have... uh... could you... do you mind stepping out for the rest of this um... interview?

Thank you.

-¿Quieres que yo me vaya?

-No, así está bien.

-He said he want me to stay.

-He wants you to stay?

Oh, okay.

All right.

Now I'm just going to ask you some questions about you as a person and your life.

You can answer as much or as little as you'd like.

Okay?

-Durante las últimas dos semanas ¿qué tan seguido ha tenido molestias debido a los siguientes problemas?

¿Se ha sentido nervioso, ansioso, o con los nervios de punta?

-A veces.

¿Cuántos días por semana?

Can... do you understand me?

-¿Le entiende a ella?

-Uh-huh.

Un poco.

[ Chuckles ] Okay.

We'll go back to using the translator.

Um... okay.

So how many days a week have you been feeling like you can't stop or control your worrying?

-¿Cuántos días a la semana se ha sentido que no puede controlar su preocupación?

Two.

-Okay.

Um... how many days uh... do you feel worried too much about different things?

-¿Cuántos días se siente preocupado sobre diferentes cosas?

-¿Cuántos días?

-Are you okay?

-¿Tú estás bien?

¿Qué pasó?

¿Estás nervioso?

¿Tú entiendes las preguntas o no?

-Sí, entiendo la pregunta.

-Pero tú estás nervioso.

¿Por qué?

¿Por mí?

Why don't we chat... -¿Nos puede dar un momento?

¿Por favor?

-Perdón.

-I'm sorry.

-It's okay.

Um... do you ever feel afraid that... that something awful might happen?

-¿Alguna vez tiene temor que algo malo va a pasar?

-Sí.

-So we ask these questions because we want to screen patients for mental health conditions that we can help with and provide support for.

Would you be interested in getting a referral for those services?

Like, counseling or therapy?

-¿Le interesa recibir una referencia a alguna ayuda así, sea la terapia...?

-Sí me gustaría.

-"Yeah, I would like that."

-Great.

Okay.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -All right, Doc.

You ready?

Yeah.

Okay.

You're doing great.

Say yes.

All right, doc, you're all done.

-Really?

Okay.

-Yeah.

Painless.

-Awesome.

-One last one.

Fantastic.

You did great.

-Thank you.

That's it?

-That's it.

-Whoo.

Guys.

Sweating bullets.

[ Laughs ] -It's crazy 'cause it... today is your day.

But I kind of feel nervous, too.

Like I'm about to go do something.

-Everybody put they professional headshots up, I put a fun picture.

-Everybody... everybody's getting ready to get tore down if I ain't see my damn baby up there.

Oh, okay.

-Me and Halle and actually Alex, too.

Alex, Alex... -Oh, that's yeah, she's... -She's my...

These who I'm gonna be sitting next to, all cool people.

My plan for match day is to have my mom and boyfriend open up the envelope and if my results is in my top three, I'm gonna go back to my apartment with the rest of my family and just like with signing day, with high school student athletes, I'm gonna pick a hat of which program I actually end up at.

♪♪ ♪♪ -Oh, here I am.

-Alexandra Gracia Perez.

-I know.

That's a good picture.

-Why do you look twelve-and-a-half here?

-This was White Coat Ceremony.

This was literally four years ago.

Should I take a picture with my picture?

Is that weird?

-No, that's fire.

-Students, if you could do me a favor.

Let's start making ourselves over to the rock for your class of 2023 Match Day photo.

♪♪ [ Students cheering ] -T-minus three minutes, guys.

Be ready to be excited.

It's going to be challenging, but I want to hear y'all through the phone.

-Excuse me, excuse me, excuse me.

Excuse me.

Excuse me.

L, M, N, O, P...

I'm over here.

Seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.

[ People cheering ] -Let's get it, guys.

-I cannot.

I cannot do this here.

I... -You ready, Shauna?

-Yeah.

I gotta fix my mic.

-Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

-You ready?

-The moment of truth.

-Monte... Montefiore!

-Montefiore?

Let's go.

[ Person yelling through phone ] Let me see.

Congratulations, my love... Monte doctor.

Monte doctor.

You did it, babe.

Oh, my God.

-Is she crying?

-Yo... she did it, guys.

Alexandra Gracia Perez.

-[ Sobbing ] -He's gonna tell me if it's my top three.

-Come on.

-What am I looking at?

-Top three.

-Top three?

Bet, bet, bet.

Bet.

-[ Screaming happily ] -Don't say it, Ma.

Don't say it.

-Top three.

-Top three.

I'll take top three.

I take it, I take it, I take it.

Hey... -I need to call Mommy.

I should call you back.

Hi, Sonny... -You staying in the Bronx, baby.

-Oh, my God.

I can't even function right now.

Hi, Ma.

Look, Ma... -[ Screaming through phone ] -She's a homegrown hero to me.

I used to see her name on the bulletin board, because they used to do a gold, bronze, silver honor roll.

So, like, I was finally able to get myself on the bronze, but I'm like, who is this girl that's always on the top, the highest accumulated GPA?

I just saw how, like, dedicated she was to everything she put her mind to.

In the Bronx, the biggest disparity is people outside the Bronx don't understand us the same way that she can, having that inside context and understanding what the fears that go along with medical care.

She'll be able to bridge that gap in a way that a lot of others won't be able to.

-Hi.

-Is it good?

-I like that one.

-All right, y'all ready?

-Yeah, we ready.

Eh... [ Laughs ] Let's go!!

Number one!

[ People cheering ] -That's right.

I told you they wanted you, they wanted you.

I said they all wanted you.

-Let's go.

Oh, my God.

[ People speaking indistinctly ] -She cry... bawlin'... -Y'all want to take pictures?

You want to cry?

-She slobbered and everything.

[ Laughter ] -So today I matched at my number one prelim program and my number one residency program, which is both Duke.

So we're movin' to Durham, North Carolina, this summer.

[ People cheering ] It's just cool to think of where I came from to get to the point that I am now.

College was a grind, and applying to med school was a grind, and figuring out... like I applied to so many... over maybe sixty schools and only got four interviews for medical school.

And got accepted into three out of the four of those, and ended up here, and it's just crazy to think that all these programs that didn't even give me a look for interviews, um... for comin' to med school, um... was welcoming me with open arms after medical school, and trying to apply to residency.

Ma.

This is the program director of Duke.

They Facetimed me.

-Thank you!

[ People cheering indistinctly ] This is my mom.

This is my sister, nieces and... -[ Cheering indistinctly ] -Y'all better take care of my baby.

[ Laughter ] -This is my other sister.

This is the program director.

-Hi.

Thank you so much.

-Bye-bye.

That was mad dope.

-You had all the cards stacked against you.

Like you could have stopped at any point.

Everyone would have been like, "Yeah, I get it."

But like you persevered through everything and... and... and did well at it, too.

It's not like you... not like you just made it.

Like, you did well.

-She has a toy one.

So I want her...

I told her I had a real one.

You gotta push down harder.

-You smiling, too.

Wow, that's a happy heart?

You got a good heart like your gramma.

-That's a happy heart.

-You got a happy heart?

-Charles.

-Look who's leaving me.

-Yeah.

Not, well, not for good... not for good just yet.

You got me for another two weeks.

-Oh, really?

-Yeah.

-Alright.

♪♪ ♪♪ [ Cheers and applause ] Aye, we did it.

-♪ O, gather up the brokenness ♪ ♪ And bring it to me now ♪ ♪ The fragrance of those promises ♪ ♪ You never dared to vow ♪ [ Indistinct conversations ] ♪ The splinters that you carried ♪ ♪ The cross you left behind ♪ ♪ Come healing of the body, come healing ♪ -Wow.

Alex.

It's my Alex.

She's the only person I know that said, "When I grow up, I wanna be XYZ" and she did it.

So, yes!

Yes!

-♪ Come healing of the reason ♪ ♪ Come healing of the heart ♪ ♪♪ -Hi.

Doctor Phinazee.

-Yeah.

So the plan is to probably get you home today if you... if the pain is pretty controlled and you're comfortable with goin' home.

-Yeah.

-And hopefully we're... get you out of here today, okay?

-Okay.

♪♪ [ Knock on door ] -[ Says indistinct name ] -Hola, ¿cómo estás?

Soy la doctora Pérez.

-♪ O, see the darkness yielding that tore the light apart ♪ ♪ Come healing of the reason, come healing of the heart ♪ -I'm happy to share with you that starting in August this year, Albert Einstein College of Medicine will be tuition free.

[ Crowd cheering ] -♪ O, solitude of longing where love has been confined ♪ ♪ Come healing of the body, come healing of the mind ♪ ♪ O, longing of the branches to lift the little bud ♪ ♪ O, longing of the arteries to purify the blood ♪ ♪ And let the heavens hear it, the penitential hymn ♪ ♪ Come healing of the spirit, come healing of the limb ♪