Tens of thousands of residents are beginning medical careers as a new wave of coronavirus patients threaten to overwhelm hospitals and the doctors who care for them.

Its not quite what these new doctors signed up for or expected when they entered medical school four years ago. But they are providing reinforcements to a stretched corps of health care providers desperate for help as cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, surge in Texas.

Dr. Rachel Boren, a pediatrics resident at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, heard the stories about doctors falling ill and, in some cases, dying from the coronavirus. Like many of her fellow residents, who graduated in May, she is nervous about entering the medicine when doctors and nurses are at high risk of contracting the disease.

At the same time, said Boren, 26, who graduated from the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine. I don't see another way because I think that all these patients need the best health care they can receive.

Boren and other new doctors are beginning careers at a particularly uncertain period for their profession and the health care industry. Not only must they contend with a global pandemic in the short-term, they also face the long-term prospect of working in health care systems stressed by a shortage of physicians.

The Association of American Medical Colleges projects a shortage between 46,900 and 121,900 physicians by 2032 as the U.S. population grows at a faster rate than new doctors enter the health care system. At the same time, the nations aging population will require more care.

For patients, that would mean longer wait times for medical specialists, such as pulmonologists who focus on respiratory systems, and a worse shortage of doctors in rural and low-income communities, said Dr. Janis Orlowski, chief health care officer at the Association of American Medical Colleges.

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During the pandemic, hospitals are seeking all the help they can get. Texas loosened medical licensing requirements in March to allow retired nurses and doctors and medical practitioners with out-of-state licenses to treat patients.

The recently graduated residents are also boosting the local health care workforce, as infection rates rise in Houston, said Dr. Richard Hamill, who oversees the Baylor College of Medicines internal medicine residency program.

Hes divided his residents into three groups: the first as clinical workers on the front lines treating patients; the second as backup in case residents or attending doctors get sick and the third on standby, mostly studying for their board certifications and taking online classes focused on technical and policy issues in health care.

In the three months since the pandemic broke out, a handful of his doctors have contracted COVID-19 as well as other illnesses unrelated to the virus, leaving gaps in care for patients. Thats where the residents can fill in, he said.

Hamill said he sees parallels to his own residency, which he completed during the height of the AIDS/HIV pandemic in the 1980s. At the time, those doctors had few clues how HIV was transmitted or when a drug treatment or vaccine would be available.

None of the residents have backed off, Hamill said. A lot stepped up.

A lot are stepping up now. Dr. Daniel Bajwa, who in mid-June started his residency in internal medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, sees the pandemic providing an on-the-ground training experience that he would have never gotten otherwise. He expects his residency to be a long course in patient safety, giving extra care to prevent transmitting COVID-19 infection to patients who come the hospital for other reasons.

Bajwa, 28, also expects to encounter COVID-19 patients when he begins his rotation in the emergency room in July in the emergency department. He admitted hes worried about catching the virus.

At least for my sanity, I try not to dwell on that, he said.

Dr. Amy Engler, who began her residency as an internal medicine physician in mid-June, sees the opportunity to help when doctors are needed more than ever. Engler, 29, graduated from Baylor College of Medicine in March, and will stay at Baylor to complete her residency.

I feel the responsibility to my community to take care of my patients and be there for my city, she said.

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Many other new and aspiring doctors feel the same way. Researchers at the Association of American Medical Colleges at one time worried that COVID-19 would scare students from the profession, worsening projected physician shortages.

But number of people applying to take medical licensing exams hasnt declined. Nor has the number of students wanting to become doctors.

People take a look at what we are doing, said Orlowski, the associations president, and theyre saying, you know, I want to have a profession like that. I want to be able to serve people, I want to be able to help them.

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Joining the front lines: Texas medical residents begin rotations during the pandemic - Houston Chronicle