Paying Forward, Giving Back, and Being All the Better for It

During the peak of the pandemic, “it was so tough on everybody, and two of my co-residents quit,” recalled Todd Walker, MD, an orthopedic surgeon in Austin, Texas. Even the one perk for healthcare workers — free coffee from chains like Dunkin’ and Starbucks — ended after a few months.

That is, until one of Walker’s attendees decided to take matters into his own hands. Each week, he brought in coffee and donuts for the staff.

That’s it. Coffee and donuts. But it worked. Morale rose.

And Walker started thinking.

“We drink more coffee than anyone,” he said of healthcare workers.

Along with two colleagues, Walker co-founded a mission-driven coffee company. Morning Rounds Coffee sells craft coffee and mugs, donating up to 25% of its profits to organizations that support mental health programs and scholarships for healthcare workers.

The blends are the fun part: All named with medical terms like the high caffeine “Transfusion” and Decaf “DNR.” The mugs carry clever phrases, like “ABCs Airway, Breathing…Coffee!” Team members also volunteer their time in the community.

Now, a few years in, the leadership team has expanded to include several doctors who share the workload. Over the course of 2 years of weekly meetings, they’ve become close friends, Walker says.

These relationships are just one of many reasons Walker is grateful for Morning Rounds. Another is how it brought him back to why he started in medicine: To help people he cares about and build community.

“Medicine is a big deal for me,” he said. “I had heart surgery at 10 and am a type 1 diabetic — I still go to the doctor every month. My wife is a cancer doctor. This is my life, this is community.” The challenges of the pandemic showed him how much his fellow healthcare workers need support — and he’s gratified to give it.

As Walker and many others in healthcare have learned firsthand, the joys of giving back are manifold. Small opportunities can bring massive impact. Donating time, money, or services can lead to greater wisdom, gratitude, skills, and confidence. Plus, it can provide meaning and joy and strengthen connections with patients and the community. In short, these efforts can be life-changing and even invigorating, renewing passion for medicine.

Medscape Medical News spoke with other philanthropic practitioners to learn their uplifting stories. Read on for inspiration and their tips for getting started on making a difference yourself.

One Volunteer Experience, One Career Change

The catalyst for Reid Beauchemin, MSPO, CPO, to change his life was a bit less dramatic. But the results were arguably even more life-altering.

One night while working toward a physical therapy degree, he procrastinated. Instead of studying for an exam, he filled out a volunteer form. “I’d had the form in my inbox for weeks, and it was the last day to send it in,” he recalled.

Good thing he did. His experience at Camp No Limits, a camp for children with limb loss and limb differences, led him to change his career path and orient his life around volunteering. During his time at the camp, Beauchemin befriended a prosthetist who’d established the Limb Kind Foundation, which provides prosthetic care and support in underserved regions. After participating in the foundation’s first international humanitarian aid trip to Haiti, Beauchemin resolved to become a certified prosthetist and orthotist. He hasn’t looked back since.

Today, Beauchemin works at ForMotion Clinic in Framingham, Massachusetts, and continues to volunteer in his free time. “I use all my vacation time and the volunteer hours my employer provides,” he said, revealing he plans his year around his volunteer commitments.

At Camp No Limits, Beauchemin teaches children how to use their prosthetics and helps parents and siblings understand the needs of limb-different kids. Recently, one of the first campers he met there became a nurse at an amputee clinic. “Seeing her come full circle, helping other amputees, has been incredibly rewarding and inspiring,” he said. “These experiences give me a sense of purpose, seeing how the connections and mentorship we provide can change lives.”

Through the Limb Kind Foundation and other organizations like Dreaming & Working Together, Beauchemin has gone on more medical missions, making prosthetics for children in Kenya, Peru, and the Philippines. Over the course of about 10 days, he works with other prosthetists, as well as amputee mentors, students, and physical and occupational therapists.

The days are long, the work physically demanding, and the facilities sometimes short on necessary equipment or materials. “We do the best we can — we need to be flexible but very meticulous,” he said. Still, for Beauchemin, “it’s immensely rewarding when you see someone walk for the first time in years, or sometimes ever. In Kenya, one girl traveled 36 hours by bus to get to the clinic. Knowing how hard she worked to get there for her first prosthesis, being able to help her and connect on a human level was powerful motivation.”

“To think what could have happened if I didn’t fill out the form, my entire life would be so different,” Beauchemin reflected. “My life is deeply enriched by this work. With volunteering, you can learn so much more than at any conference. You become a better clinician. You become a better human.”

Medical Missions Build Community

For Sameh Mosaed, MD, an ophthalmologist at the Gavin Herbert Eye Institute at UCI Health and professor of ophthalmology at the University of California, Irvine School of Medicine, the transformational effects of giving back came later in her career.

By 2017, she’d been practicing medicine for nearly 20 years. But she wanted to make an impact beyond her California community. So, when a colleague approached her about cofounding an ophthalmic branch of Women for World Health, a medical mission organization, she readily agreed. Their plan was to perform glaucoma and cataract surgeries and educate local doctors in developing countries, like Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia.

Although Mosaed had limited experience with nonprofit administration, she knew it was worth navigating the steep learning curve. After all, the impact would be significant. For one, many in these areas were in desperate need of care due to a shortage of doctors. Plus, because these surgeries can cure blindness within 24 hours, they’re well suited to the medical mission format.

“For each person, if you reverse their blindness from a cataract, it frees them to go back to the workplace. That’s tremendous. It’s a shame not to use it to bring change around the world,” she said.

Galvanized, they set about gathering personnel, amassing supplies and equipment (through donations and fundraising), and researching which countries had the least access to medical mission organizations. Finally, they narrowed in on a hospital in Peru and planned their first trip.

Since then, they’ve gotten their process down to a science. Each year, they make one or two trips, always during Valentine’s Day week (when no major ophthalmic meetings take place). Plus, they lessen the workload by dividing the preparation up among themselves and a team of volunteers.

Then, during each trip, Mosaed and a surgical colleague usually perform a total of 100 procedures. Because they’re unable to rely on technology, materials, and instruments readily available in the United States (like cataract staining dyes and iris expansion devices), they’re forced to be flexible.

“A lot of the things we take for granted here; you don’t have the luxury of using. You have to make it work,” she said. Because you “do things in ways you might not have practiced or expected,” you improve your surgical skills and “return more confident.”

“This work has changed my life and my outlook on medicine,” Mosaed said. It’s been so rewarding; in fact, she became the organization’s medical director and chief surgeon. Juggling her volunteering and work as a doctor and professor has been well worth it. “In these countries, the gratitude the patients have and the impact you can make are so profound. The emotional and spiritual nourishment really carries me through the year.” For example, after Mosaed removed the cataracts from a young mother in Ecuador, her patient saw her baby’s face for the first time. “She was hysterically crying and overwhelmed and said, ‘My baby is beautiful’ over and over,” Mosaed recalled.

“It’s amazing how many avenues and tributaries of friendship this work opens up,” Mosaed added. “When you touch one person, they have hundreds of contacts and share their story.” For instance, doctors whose scrub techs have participated in the missions have reached out to offer their support, while her patients have donated money for supplies. Plus, several years into the program, the dozens of US and international doctors who’ve participated keep in touch on a chat group. “These doctors become lifelong friends,” said Mosaed. “We share cases. We lift each other up.”

How to Get Started

Inspired to give back, but afraid you don’t have the time or resources? “There are lots of different levels of participation, ranging from as little as joining a panel discussion to getting involved on a leadership level and everything in between,” said Austin, Texas-based Matthew J. Ashley, MD, JD, neurologist and chief medical officer at the Centre for Neuro Skills. Years ago, he began volunteering by giving occasional health talks for adults, ramping up his efforts to chair the recent annual Heart Walk for the Texas branch of the American Heart Association.

If you feel too pressed for time, consider joining a giving circle that donates funds to important causes. Or start small in other ways. Follow in Ashley’s footsteps and provide talks, or take a cue from Walker’s former attending and bring donuts and coffee for your team. Help decorate the pediatric ward of your hospital or investigate becoming a medical advocate or peer counselor. If you’re eager to put in more hours, ask an organization you admire how you can help, or join a medical mission.

Above all, don’t be deterred. “You don’t need to be big and have lots of funding — you just need time and elbow grease,” said Corey S. Maas, MD, a facial plastic surgeon at The Maas Clinic in San Francisco. Inspired by his passion for reading, he started Beauty for Books, a literacy-promoting organization, out of his office. In 2007, concerned that only half the schools in Oakland, California, had a library, he and his team began donating books from the district’s preferred reading list to local K-8 schools. Over time, that modest effort grew into a 501c3 nonprofit with a wider scale and impact.

“Everyone goes into medical school wanting to do great things, but then we can get inundated by how hard the field can be on healthcare workers,” said Walker. Adding to your commitments might sound impossible and exhausting. But, as he and so many other healthcare workers have found, when you give, you benefit others and get so much back.

“It really is chicken soup for your soul,” said Mosaed.

Some Resources to Help You Get Started