Latinas in Medicine is a Twitter account and movement started by three Latinas in healthcare: Dr. Narjust Duma, Briana Ruiz Christophers, and Dr. Maria Mora Pinzon. The community has amassed more than 3,000 followers and provided countless connections for Latinas in the healthcare profession. I had the pleasure of speaking with the three founders to learn more about the social media movement.
Interview edited for brevity and clarity.
How did #LatinasinMedicine start?
Dr. Narjust Duma: It was a cold day in Rochester, Minnesota. I was the only Latina for miles and I was on the elliptical and I was like, “Why does everyone have a group but I don’t have a group?” There’s every type of conference…they all get together but there is never a Latina group and this is a problem. So while on the elliptical I texted Maria and Briana and I’m like, “We should start a group called Latinas in Medicine.” Within a matter of minutes Maria had opened the account and registered the hashtag. And that was the day we were born – on a cold evening in Rochester, Minnesota.
Maria was in Madison and Briana was in New York. Since then, we’ve had a few conference calls to determine the plan of the group. We wanted to make sure it was inclusive of all healthcare professions and also that it was not only talking about the bad things that happen like microaggressions, the challenges that people encounter about being first generation college students, first generation doctors, or being immigrants – like my case – or having an accent. We wanted to focus also on amplifying Latinas and creating a sense of community because isolation is very common in medicine and it is very common that I am in a meeting and I am the only Latina and I’m talking about being with thousands of people. The goal is to create a sense of community and to learn from each other.
Dr. Maria Mora Pinzon: And at that time, as Narjust was mentioning, she was in Minnesota and she was a fellow at the Mayo clinic. I was in Madison, Wisconsin and was a physician scientist in preventive medicine. Bri was in New York. Bri is an MD/PhD student so you can see that we are in different stages of our careers.
Briana Ruiz Christophers: The thing I would add is that we all met online. We hadn’t met each other in person yet when we started the group so that’s the power of Twitter and social media.
Did you meet through a specific social media platform?
Ruiz Christophers: Through Twitter – I think we all met through the Women in Medicine chat right?
Dr. Mora Pinzon: Yeah that’s what I was thinking. We connected a couple of times through there.
Dr. Duma: Yeah it was through that chat and the funny part is that we were probably the only three Latinas on that chat and that’s how we ended up meeting each other.
You mentioned that when you started the group, your goal was to create community. Has your goal shifted since then? What is the future of the Latinas in Medicine group?
Dr. Duma: I think more than shifted, we have expanded the goal. I think community is still a priority. We had our first happy hour last Friday and I can tell you the excitement and emotions that the happy hour brought to many of our members and to ourselves. We were talking about the challenges of the pandemic but we were all together as Latinas. There are many things we share that we cannot share with our classmates and our colleagues.
And I’m just going to make reference to one: something that is very unique to Latinas is that we do have a financial responsibility with our families that are stronger than other cultures. In which if you are the one making a little more money, you send money to your grandma. Which my husband is not Latino and that is not expected of him. And every time I talk to young Latinas, you know that’s a responsibility not written anywhere but that we have. So that kind of helps us carry the burden and also the good aspects of being a Latina in medicine which can be hard sometimes.
Dr. Mora Pinzon: I agree that the goal has not shifted at all, if anything it has gone deeper. So not only how we connect on social media but how we create opportunities for meeting in person. One of the things we have started doing is giving these ribbons away to Latinas in Medicine so that when people go to conferences and meet other people, they can add these little ribbons to their name tag and that way they can recognize each other. And we have seen such a success and there are some wonderful people that get together because they see the ribbons and say, “Hey! I saw your Twitter!” or something like that.
Dr. Duma: And to add to the ribbons – Latinos, we come in different flavors and different types and it’s very hard sometimes to find out who is Latino and who is not. I’m part Eastern Indian and that’s how I dress, you wouldn’t guess I’m Latina so the ribbon has removed that barrier. Because sometimes you are afraid to ask because I have been burned several times when I’m like “Como estas?” and the answer is “No.” It helps avoid that comfortable moment when you’re not sure.
Do you have any favorite moments that have happened through Latinas in Medicine?
Dr. Mora Pinzon: I had the opportunity to go to one conference and I ran out of ribbons. It was great to use them to make connections and connecting people. We had two Brazilians in the group and they didn’t know each other but after [I connected them] they spent like an hour talking in Portuguese! For me, it has been a very fun opener and we create connections that might have otherwise been missed.
Ruiz Christophers: And I’ll echo that – maybe not a particular moment but a series of little moments that happen all the time on the Twitter page. There’s a lot of pre-medical Latinas or medical students who are following the page and engaging with the hashtag. You’ll see every so often a pre-med student will see a physician or reply to a post of one of our many interviews and they’ll be like, “Can I talk to you more about your career and what you’re doing and get a sense of what that’s like?” And seeing those small moments of connection of people not realizing there were others doing things they want to do has been very gratifying.
Dr. Duma: And I think great mentorship and relationships have been developed through the website. I’m aware of some – I met an EMT through the website and mentorship is challenging for us because there’s not that many of us. I think we have been very successful with people finding mentors through the posts or the interviews.
How has the current health crisis affected you and how has it impacted your page?
Ruiz Christophers: As a student, it has turned everything upside down because we are not allowed to go back to classes and we’re doing a lot of things virtually and we are not allowed to be in any clinical spaces. I think through the community a lot of us have been putting out, “This is a struggle, I can’t do the things that I want to be doing in training.” Or for example, I can’t take my licensing exam because they have completely canceled everything and started changing schedules around. I have been receiving support from people checking in and making sure you’re okay in these moments and being able to check in with other Latina physicians and professionals that I know through the community to make sure everyone is okay.
Dr. Mora Pinzon: When this started, we did a little poll asking what would be more helpful for people. At the beginning we were a little lost. Should we keep going as normal? Should we acknowledge [the pandemic] or should we change and shift to share only covid related things? The results of the survey were clear. People still wanted encouragement, connection. Yes, we still shared some things related to COVID-19 for those that had been infected but also it was a lot of acknowledging that there are many Latinas on the front lines working very hard to take care of patients. I think the content has not shifted that much just a little bit on adding extra resources on extra things for people but that’s one of the things that we feel like we do. We create the connections so people can find what they need in other places too.
Dr. Duma: Something that I wanted to add was that at the beginning of the pandemic, the majority of healthcare professionals [shown in media] were not hispanic. At the end of March and beginning of April, we were making sure that Latinas were on the frontlines and being amplified because they were working hard but when you go to mainstream media, that was not the case. When you’re working so many hours, it’s hard to be put again as a second class citizen. We were trying to show that Latinas are on the frontlines and doing a lot of things that other people are also doing.
What advice would you have for young Latinas interested in becoming doctors or healthcare professionals?
Dr. Duma: Don’t let anybody set your goals or set your ceiling. Something that I have encountered when I meet some of the pre-med students is that they are told, “you should consider this less challenging major or less challenging goal.” And I think that’s quite common for minority students – not only Latinos – so my number one goal is that you are the one that sets your goals and the sky is the limit. Nobody should tell you that you shouldn’t do this or that because stereotypes and unconscious bias affect a lot of these recommendations by school counselors and many Latinas may decide to not be doctors because somebody decided they were not cut for that.
Ruiz Christophers: I’ll echo that too. As someone who went through the application process not too long ago and who currently advises a lot of folks who want to apply for medical school or an MD/PhD program – early on in college a lot of advisors will tell people it’s not possible at the way you are in this moment and it’s usually not true. There’s so many ways to get into medical school and in different places and through different programs. The possibilities are out there. That’s one of the big reasons I partnered with some people to write an e-book called “The Free Guide to Medical School Admission” because there’s a lack of information about what your options are and that it’s not your only chance to apply to medical school right out of college. Also, just because you don’t see anybody like you doing that nearby, it’s still possible. For example, I didn’t meet a Latina physician until I was 23, almost 24. And I think that’s a big reason why we want this account to be open even if it’s not someone that they’ve met in person yet.
Dr. Mora Pinzon: I will add that you cannot be what you cannot see. That also applies to all of those that follow us. For all the young people, make sure that your work is recognized, advertised, and amplified. Latinos, we tend to say “we” even when it’s “I”, the person that did the work. We need to work on this and it’s not about being humble, it’s about making sure that everybody knows what you did and your value and how strong and amazing a person you are.