A few days after the Jack & Jill Health Fair in Broward County, Eileen Bernal, a Miller School medical student, picked up the phone and called a patient. It was a courtesy call, sort of - to see how the patient was doing and to gently remind her that it was important she see a doctor, soon, and get a breast mass thoroughly examined.
The woman, whom Bernal and other doctors-in-training saw at the Miller School's Mitchell Wolfson Sr. Department of Community Service (DOCS) health fair, had been sick with worry about the mass and other signs that pointed to cancer. Though the patient had no medical insurance, Bernal had sought her approval to give her name to a physician in the Broward County health system.
The patient sobbed gently on the phone, thanked Bernal, and assured her she would visit the physician the next day.
"We would have called her anyway," says Bernal, "but it would normally take a couple of weeks before we got back her lab results from the health fair. This was a case where I needed to make sure the patient was going to get help as soon as possible."
It's that care for others, that love for medicine, that dedication to community health, that have helped Bernal rise to become the newest student leader of DOCS, the nearly 40-year-old organization run by UM medical students. Through free health fairs and clinics, DOCS serves thousands of patients each year. Bernal, who began her fourth year of medical school this summer, bested four other finalists in May and was named executive director of DOCS for the 2009-2010 year.
"This is one of the most thrilling moments of my life," says Bernal. "DOCS is one of the preeminent organizations on campus and comes with a great history of care and service. The title comes with a lot of responsibility, but having been part of DOCS for so long, it's a job for which I am totally prepared."
"Eileen is the perfect student to assume responsibility for our medical student community service programs," says Mark O'Connell, M.D., senior associate dean for medical education. "She has participated in almost all aspects of our community health fairs and has extraordinary organizational and leadership abilities. I have no doubts about the DOCS organization sustaining its consistent record of growth and improvement under her direction."
As dozens of freshmen do each school year, Bernal joined the DOCS volunteer corps with a mission to help as many patients as possible while accumulating patient-contact experience. Each year, however, a core group of students return in their second year, and their third. The most dedicated ones stick with DOCS and volunteer all four years of medical school, learning all the behind-the-scenes details of running 10 health fairs a year and coordinating and staffing ongoing health clinics.
"For those of us who stay involved the whole time there is so much more to DOCS," says Bernal. "It is more than showing up and putting on a stethoscope. Dispensing health care for so many people in so many places requires time, good planning, and a strong desire to bring health care to those who need it most. It takes a great team effort."
Bernal will be relying heavily on her executive staff, site directors, and other volunteers and faculty who help supervise and deliver care. Next year, Bernal is planning to make the Broward County Jack & Jill mini-health fair into a full-fledged one. She wants to do the same for the Liberty City Health Fair, which she says has the potential to grow and have a significant impact on the health of countless people. Bernal will lead DOCS while serving as the vice president for the Class of 2010 and senior editor of the Synapse yearbook. "I like to keep busy and stay involved. I can never do just one thing," remarks Bernal.
Medicine, then, will be a good fit.
Bernal's love for medicine started with her love for school. As a child she loved school so much she wanted a career that would require many years of schooling. She chose medicine in high school after her biology teacher showed a video of a plastic surgeon's miraculous work. The surgeon restored a patient's face after a horrific motorcycle accident and Bernal was sold on a career of caring. "I thought that was so amazing and I wanted to do something like that," says Bernal, who was born and raised in Miami and graduated from UM with a double major in Biochemistry and Spanish.
Looking down the road, Bernal wants to do her residency in surgery, a surgery sub-specialty, and then work in the field for a number of years. After that? She wants to get back to medical school - as a faculty member with a long-term goal to become a dean.
"An academic environment allows you to do so much. You're seeing health care as a big picture - you're taking care of patients, preparing new doctors, and looking at health policy," notes Bernal.
Leading DOCS will certainly provide good training for a medical student who is set on becoming a health care leader. In addition to expanding the Jack & Jill and Liberty City health fairs, Bernal and her team are planning to invite student representatives from several other Florida medical schools to witness the DOCS Florida Keys Health Fair next year, with a view to encouraging them to begin their own health fairs and potentially bringing free health services to thousands more people.
"It really is an honor to be involved with DOCS and it's a privilege to be part of the core team that will carry on the tradition for the next year," says Bernal. "This is one of the greatest examples of teamwork done by medical students to benefit our society."
