Serendipity in Shutdown with Jackie Howitt, MD & Gretchen Volk, MD
The Nocturnists
Emily Silverman
4.8 • 614 Ratings
🗓️ 9 March 2023
⏱️ 53 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
OB/GYN Jackie Howitt and pediatrician Gretchen Volk bring us into the deserted airport where they first met in April 2020 on their way to offer COVID-19 relief in NYC. Though their friendship began at one of the most disorienting moments in their lives, the coincidences that followed made the connection feel almost fated.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Support for the Nocturnist comes from the California Medical Association. |
| 0:05.1 | Season 5 of The Nocturnist Stories from the World of Medicine is sponsored by the Physicians Foundation. |
| 0:11.3 | At the Nocturnist, we are careful to ensure that all stories comply with health care privacy laws. |
| 0:16.0 | Details may have been changed to ensure patient confidentiality. |
| 0:19.5 | All views expressed are those of the person speaking and not their employer. |
| 0:26.6 | You're listening to the nocturness, stories from the world of medicine. |
| 0:35.1 | I'm Emily Silverman. |
| 0:38.0 | During the peak of the pandemic, |
| 0:39.8 | the demand for physicians |
| 0:40.9 | far outstripped the supply. |
| 0:44.2 | Urgent calls went out for doctors who could help, |
| 0:47.2 | people who could come out of retirement |
| 0:48.7 | or leave the comfort of their medical specialty |
| 0:51.3 | to staff up the hospital wards and ICU's. |
| 0:56.3 | Today's episode features the voices of two of those doctors, Jackie Howitt and Gretchen Volk. |
| 1:05.3 | Jackie retired from her clinical OB-Eguine practice in 2019 and educates med students as a |
| 1:10.8 | clinical associate professor |
| 1:12.1 | in the Department of Health Humanities at the University of Rochester. Gretchen is an urgent |
| 1:18.8 | care pediatrician in Rochester who completed her pediatric residency at Strong Memorial Hospital. |
| 1:26.0 | When Jackie and Gretchen first reached out to me about their story, I was very intrigued |
| 1:30.3 | because they were proposing that they tell their story together as a dialogue. |
| 1:36.3 | We had never done that before at the nocturnists. |
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