Serving The LGBTQ Community As A Healthcare Provider

Hey, welcome, this is episode six in this episode, I have the pleasure of interviewing Sabina to speak about her medical school perspective. You can find her on Instagram@thecurlymed, where she posts great pictures with super relatable captions. If you would like to learn more about her journey and why she chose medicine, keep listening.

Hi, Sabina. Thank you so much for coming on with us today.

Hi. Thanks for having me.

Yeah, of course. How are you doing?

I'm all right. You know, zooming all week for school has been exhausting. I actually lost my voice a little earlier, so I'm glad it came back for this.

Oh, my gosh. Yeah, I know Zoom can be honestly just as exhausting as going into school.

Yes. If not more honestly.

Now I feel you on that. So where are you from and what year are you in?

So I grew up in Southern California and that's honestly where I spent all of my childhood. And then I went to undergrad in Philly. So I've been in Pennsylvania for about eight years.

I was just doing various school things and currently, I'm a second-year medical student at Pitt.

That's awesome. How are you liking it so far?

It's good. Second-year is is a lot it's a lot different than first year just in terms of like rigor and pace. But we're adjusting. We're doing our best.

Are you starting, like, boards or are you just going with the flow with your classes for now?

Yeah, I'm sticking like. So we're still a traditional curriculum. So we had cardio and now we have Rainelle.

But I am not really doing like lecture material explicitly anymore. I was doing that pretty much for all the first year, but I found myself falling behind in cardio. So I've switched to doing like external resources as the primary just to like stay up with the pace and sort of get that board influence going and then supplementing with lecture.

That's awesome to hear. I'm also doing the same thing. So it's reassuring to know that other people are also focusing on boards as a second year student.

Yeah, it's freaky to like go off of the lecture material because like the blackboard, because then I feel bad. If I see all these lectures that I haven't watched yet, I should watch them. So I just don't even log in.

It's a good move, I might adapt that.

So what was the very one specific driving factor that motivated you to become a doctor?

I think over the years, my why has changed.

I know that I've wanted to be a doctor since I was a kid, but my reasons when I was like five are completely different than my reasons now. And I think when when my premed journey was at its toughest, the one thing that kept me going was just the impact that I could potentially have on patients lives and the differences I can make, which in part drove me to get my master's of public health. But I'm very interested and passionate about LGBTQ plus reproductive health based on my personal experiences in that field as a black gay woman. And so that specific thing like those experiences and I research in those in that field has really been the driving force and the continuing motivator for me on this path.

That's really great to hear. And honestly, that goes perfectly into my next question for you, which is how do you currently, as a medical student, advocate for the LGBTQ community in medical school and your plans for it beyond medical school?

So right now, as a medical student, I'm on the National Leadership Team for Medical Student Pride Alliance, which is like the National Diversity Organization for LGBTQ, plus med students similar to an LMC, but it's newer. And so that's one way that I really try to make an impact with LGBTQ plus health and also just resource availability for LGBT students in med school. So through that, I work with my team to create resources and programming opportunities for people who have chapters on their schools, campuses, and beyond that, like extracurricular sort of work. I also do a lot of LGBTQ plus health research, so I do a lot of research in general. And all of these research focuses have LGBT at their core in terms of thinking of keywords. One keyword is always going to be LGBT health with any research that I do. And so that's how I have found myself to be able to make like a really good and tangible impact on community health is through qualitative research. And I try to focus my projects to be things that can turn into tangible results pretty immediately. So finding like deficits and care or finding things that can easily be like fine-tuned, just like just that administration wasn't aware of it. And so through this research, I've sort of shown that this is a problem, and now, like, you guys can go and do this.

So do you do a lot of patient interviews to get an idea of what's going on in the community and where there are disparities and the care that's provided to them? Do you interview them? Do you survey them? Like how do you go about your research?

Yeah, so I do qualitative research and so all of the above. One of my projects was working with patients and doing phone interviews. And through that we've been able to to unearth some access to care barriers in specific fields. And the only reason I'm not giving specifics because we haven't published it yet. So patient interviews for sure, just getting that direct information and those direct anecdotal stories and then also through surveying like physicians and like institutions to try to get it to get from the institutional side of like, how can you guys improve your care, sort of get quality improvement type project. And that is what I did over the summer. And it's been really rewarding in that it reveals very specific, easily fixable things that institutions can make to improve care for patients. Specifically, LGBTQ patients are now taking the results from my summer project, and I'm going to meet with like higher ups. And it's going to be like this whole thing and hopefully lead to really tangible changes

You are making a huge difference, a direct difference in people's lives. So I have to thank you for that. Honestly, it's going to make a long-lasting impact because it needs to be talked about more and you're talking about it. You're doing research on it. You're going to produce tangible results, statistics, all of that stuff in your publications. So thank you for all the work that you're doing. It's something that I myself am going to utilize as a future physician, so many other people. So thank you on behalf of everyone.

Yeah, no problem. I'm just recently I'm really passionate about it. And I think my experiences as a gay patient navigating the health care system has really influenced that. And so I do all that research and then I also do a lot of work with like medical education, work at the med school level to help improve how we're teaching students to care for this population of patients so that when they graduate, they sort of are more aware of and more comfortable caring for young patients, because data has showed in the past that upon graduation, a lot of med students just aren't comfortable, not because of any sort of biases necessarily, but more so just because of lack of education.

Lack of education and it's not something we practice every day, like it's not talked about enough. And we've definitely had a few trainings during my first year, which is really awesome that my school did that. We had a few required seminars where people would come and talk about it, and we actually had a transgender physician come in and talk about her experiences and how difficult it was for her to be a really successful physician trapped inside of a man's body and not able not be able to express herself correctly and not get the support that she needed from even her colleagues and peers while she was going through her transition. And she talked about how there are still a lot of biases in medicine and a lot of doctors who don't believe in it. And as difficult as that is to even say out loud, they just don't believe in it. So she was talking about her experiences with that. And she's a very I don't remember her name, but a very successful physician. Publications on publications like everyone knows her globally, like she's very well known. So I'm really glad that our school held those seminars. And I really hope that more schools do that, because only when you start talking about it and get comfortable with the language and the terminology will you be comfortable as a physician taking care of LGBTQ community patients.

Exactly. Exactly.

So my next question for you is, what specialty are you thinking of going into right now, if you are, and why?

Yeah, so I've had my eyes on ob-gyn for a very long time. It's it's sort of like blends all of my interests into like one. I love surgery. I also love the primary care aspect of it.

I love the patient population. And I'm also strangely in love with like the reproductive system. I think it's like the coolest thing ever. And that whole, like, pregnancy cycle and all of it just really intrigues me. And so from the academic side, I'm interested in it. And then also from like the advocacy and political side, I'm very interested in it as well. I'm involved with med students for choice at my school. And I'm very pro advocating and very much in line with, like, everything that that field is also in line with in terms of like reproductive health, justice, and I think personally, for me, again, like bringing back in my life my experiences as a black gay woman, going to be OBGYN offices has not been the greatest in the past. And so I think that is like a large motivating factor for me is to sort of increase representation in the field for my future patients who might identify similarly as me.

I know that's so important. You have a really tangible and really amazing purpose as to why you're becoming a physician. So I'm really excited for you. You're going to get into a OBGYN. Tough specialty. So long hours. But I can hear the passion in your voice. And I know that it's not going to feel that way for you. And I think you're going to really love it.

Yeah, I hope so. I mean, I know I'm only a second year, so things could change once I hit the wards next year. But as of now, that's what I'm leaning towards.

And I think for you, even like you need crazy numbers and stuff. But I think your passion really shows. And if I was on a committee right now and interviewing you for residency, I would check, you’re in! I really have that to fall back on because a lot of people don't always have that same passion behind their decisions. So I believe in you and I am excited to talk to you in like a little over a year to see where you end up.

I appreciate it.

So my last question to wrap up our interview today is what is one very specific piece of advice that you would leave our listeners with today and it could be related to medicine or unrelated, but some piece of advice that has made a significant positive contribution in your life?

Yeah, I have so much to say. I think, you know, I think it's there are two ways I could answer this, like more like from the premises and also from like the med student side. I think one specific piece of advice that I had to learn the hard way that sort of translates across both of those stages of your med career is that asking for help is super important. We didn't get into my premed journey, but it was it was it was a journey. And I struggled a lot during it. And only when I started asking for help did I start to see myself succeed and start to see myself feeling like more comfortable, not only in the field, but in terms of my abilities just to be a student in general and so asking for help at the academic level, super important, but also just like outside of that, too, in terms of personal well-being, I like got a therapist a couple of years ago for the first time, and that was like a huge step for me of someone who struggles with vulnerability and struggles with asking for help. So that's a step in seeking professional mental health. Help was a huge one. And it's really done wonders for me in terms of like dealing with anxiety and imposter syndrome and all of all of it. And so I think like as premed and med students are sort of navigating their troubles or whatever comes their way, really thinking about what other people can do for them and not really taking all of the burden on themselves can make a huge difference. And that that's been really key for me, both at the academic level, whenever I'm struggling in a course and also at the personal level, when I when I need that extra support from family, friends or from a professional.

I love that advice.So thank you for sharing that. I started therapy earlier this year. And, you know, that's something that I really needed for myself. And I'm so glad that I sought help. It's really hard to be vulnerable and it's hard to kind of sit there and be like I'm the problem sometimes or like I have these X, Y and Z problems because it's really easy to say that about someone else. And they are the problem, not me. So that's one of the best pieces of advice I've heard because it goes way beyond asking for help in school or like going to a professor. It really touches every aspect of your life. So thank you for that with me.

Yes, no problem.

So, Sabina, it was great having you on. I'm so excited for people to listen to this episode. A lot of value was brought to the table. And I thank you for your time and for joining us today. And I hope to catch up with you soon.

Yeah, you too. Thank you for having me. I had fun talking to you.