women working these long hours, would be affected mentally by
returning to work. We saw a community of people whom we connect
with who had already gone through COVID-19 and had seen
family and friends be affected by COVID-19 at higher rates. Then,
to learn about the death of George Floyd, we were very conflicted
about how we could give back, but also show up, emotionally, every
day for our patients.
We emailed the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, the Office of
Community Engagement, our Resident House Staff Council and the
Student National Medical Association (SNMA) and asked ourselves
how we could make this event happen. This was on a Wednesday and
the event was Friday. By Thursday, we had already contacted the IT
department, the SNMA had already made a Facebook page, and the
news had spread on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. One of the
local groups called Louisville Lady Docs shared this on its Facebook
page, and I think that’s how surrounding hospitals such as Norton
and Baptist found out and were able to come support us. I’m also
a member of the Falls City Medical Society, the African American
medical group within Louisville, and we shared the information
there. We had people offering to do flyers, make posters, donate
hand sanitizer and extra masks—they just wanted to help. We had
over 500 RSVPs within two days.
LM: Walk me through the day. What did that day look like and
what did it involve?
TC: The SNMA was in charge of coordinating the event, because a
lot of the physicians like myself still had surgeries that day, we still
had schedules. The medical students took it upon themselves to go
out and mark spaces so that everyone was six feet apart, make sure
sanitizer stations were there, make sure there were water bottles,
make sure there were spaces for the elderly and others to sit.
We didn’t rehearse anything; we knew who was going to speak, but
we didn’t have a set order. We really just wanted it to come from our
hearts to show why this was important and how our experiences
and how us coming together as physicians would be a powerful sign
to the community that we serve.
One of the first individuals to speak was Karen Udoh, who is the
President of the SNMA and one of the leaders that helped put
the event together. She spoke from the perspective of the African
American student, how the events leading up to the day affected her,
her studies, and how as a future health care provider, she intends
to use these experiences to navigate her career.
Then I spoke about my experiences as an African American resident
in Louisville and about some of the things that we want to do,
such as creating a web page on the UofL website that people can
use as a resource. Whether they want to donate time, money, write
letters to attorneys, however they want to support the community,
they can have this website of where they can go. I also talked about
the importance of cultural competency and recognizing our own
implicit biases.
Dr. Terri Mason went on to give a powerful statement about how
this event compared to the 2014 event she had helped to set up.
For that event, the turnout was about 50 people, where this one
had at least 500. At the first event, the flyers were torn down and
DOCTORS' LOUNGE
the organizers got criticized and received a lot of other negative
comments for doing it. 2020: this year’s event was just so supported.
Rev. David Snardon, pastor at Joshua Tabernacle Missionary Baptist
Church in the West End of Louisville, went on to share his
experiences working with all of the communities in the West End,
and how he knows Breonna Taylor’s mother, and how the death of
Breonna Taylor has impacted the West End. That’s when we went
into the kneeling, which we did for 10 minutes. During that kneel,
he said a prayer of support, motivation, encouragement and hope.
He also called out the many names of people whose lives have been
lost and cut short.
It was also Breonna Taylor’s birthday, so all of us who could then
marched down Sixth Street to join the larger protest to meet up for
the recognition of Breonna Taylor and her life.
I really think this is the beginning of what’s to come. I wanted that
day to recognize that we have so much more work to do, and I was
just so happy to see so many people who are willing to do the work
with me. Most of the people who were out there don’t look like me,
and I think that’s important. It has to be a community involvement
where everyone recognizes their own biases.
LM: What outcomes and changes do you hope this inspires and
brings to our community?
TC: I think the biggest thing that we have to do is focus on a local
level and look at the things that our community needs from us. I
hope that means that as providers, we see them in the community
as much as we see them in our offices. Whether that’s us going out
to schools, to different drives, doing health checkups—anything
that lets them see a doctor outside the office so that we can make
our presence known.
Also, giving back to our local churches. I know a lot of churches
reach out and ask physicians to come and give education on certain
diseases, especially for the Black community and African American
men, who are one of the populations least likely to come in to
see their doctors. We have to take this on because there is distrust
within the African American community with the health care system,
because of events where African Americans have been taken
advantage of. It’s important for physicians who are really interested
in improving the health outcomes of this population to educate and
make ourselves known, so that when they are in the office and see
us for the first time, they are more receptive to our advice. Once
we actually start to know the community we’re serving, the barriers
start to come down and people start to open up and we will start to
see those health care disparities improve.
This isn’t something that will happen overnight. I have a public
health background, and a lot of health care disparities have to do
with access to care. As physicians we are trained on individual
care, to look at the patient, and I think sometimes we need to take
off that lens and look at a population’s health. I feel like we need to
recognize our biases and listen to our patients and not push them
off based on the color of their skin or what they look like.
We are in the process of creating a committee on the House Staff
Council, named White Coats for Community Actions, which will
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