Helping medical students become better doctors

Nandini worked with QMed for a few months in 2018 and then had to leave and go back home, due to some health issues. She kept in touch with us regularly and always shared how much she missed working here. The pandemic turned out to be a time when remote working became an increased reality. And all of us thought - why not we try this out for Nandini? She was just delighted and joined us again this year. Do read this heartwarming story. Oh, I must mention that the best part of her working from her home is that we get to see her best friend every day! 

Nandini's story

I joined QMed Knowledge Foundation in the year 2018. I had had a rough couple of years before joining. I was out of work, could not connect with anything that I did, and kept swinging from occupation to occupation with no clear vision of what I wanted.

For years now, I have known Mrs Vasumathi Sriganesh (Vasu ma'am to me), my first introduction to her being way back in 2016. I was very young and impressionable then, but even if I had not been either, she would have left a striking imprint on my mind. I wanted the kind of passion she had, the joy that she put into every activity she engaged in. In a way, being around her made me feel like I was in the presence of someone with complete assurance of what they wanted from life. It was overwhelming, but also something to aspire towards.

In 2018, ma'am offered me an opportunity and I quit my non-paying, debilitating internship in Guwahati and took a flight to Bombay. The year that commenced was a difficult one. I was diagnosed with a slew of physiological issues, and I still lacked purpose. I approached everything mechanically, getting by with doing the bare minimum so that there would be just enough to tie my physical being to something tangible.

But, even in the scenario, QMed was one of the happier aspects of my life. I loved the little office, the small cups of tea that always there to greet us in the morning, the active brainstorming sessions, and most of all, the amount I learned. I learned to give value to a domain that I had no idea existed. I always assumed that health professionals knew everything they needed to about doing research. I realized that that wasn't quite the case.

Growing up, I was a first-hand witness to what negligence in the fields of medical knowledge could do. The more I got involved with QMed, the more I realized the indispensability of this tiny organization and its less-than-ten women, working to help health education become better.

I left QMed at the end of 2018, my health being unsuited to continuing away from home at that point. I returned to my native home in Kolkata and worked in several reputed organizations. I was unhappy with all of them. Right until a bright winter morning in February this year, when Vasu ma'am called and asked me to rejoin her organization.

Some things have changed. Working in the middle of a pandemic and about a thousand kilometers away from each other presents new challenges and agendas. But if anything, I have always known ma'am to be someone who takes a challenge head-on, who is willing to learn and grow- an eternal student of life. In the last few months, I have felt my passion returning, along with my love for writing and applying it to help you all understand why we do what we do.

The five women in QMed make sure to connect for some time every day, over phone calls or zoom meetings. While most of the connect time is filled with work discussions, we do manage more - from new search strategies to life after shifting houses, from organizing workshops to sharing videos of ma'am's grandchildren pulling ridiculously adorable antics. We are more than a team- we're a family – going through pandemic and working from home.

I as a team member want to specially say this for QMed - that there will be a day in the future where medical research looks at literature searching and referencing as key tools to progress. The QMed family will continue to be the torchbearers, today and thereafter.  

Founder's note. It is not always that organizations get to hire employees who are passionate about the cause. QMed has been lucky in retaining people for long despite our fund crunches. Getting Nandini back was a bonus - while we have had other team members for many years!