DESCRIPTION:

Mary Katherine Martin Clark, MS, PA-C, is a primary care provider caring for people infected with COVID-19 and those who are at risk of infection. 

The Reverend Doctor Melissa Sexton is a post-doctoral fellow in the Satcher Health Leadership Institute at the Morehouse School of Medicine and an ordained elder in the United Methodist Church.  Dr. Sexton is completing a practicum with the Interfaith Health Program as part of her fellowship; as part of that work, she is interviewing those with particular insights into the religious and spiritual dimensions of the COVID-19 outbreak and our responses to it.

In this interview, Mrs. Martin-Clark discusses her calling as a healthcare professional, recounting her own history in public health, medical missions, and clinical care. Mary Katherine describes God’s presence with her and how that grounds her as she offers care to her patients. As she works in clinical care in the midst of this outbreak, Mary Katherine notes how so many of our collective feelings are focused on scarcity and fear; in response, she tries to focus on abundance.  Mary Katherine also recounts how the clinical response to the virus has helped her to realize that she is part of a team of professional peers; she is not alone in a silo as a lone provider.  As she seeks to care for those infected with a virus about which so little is known, Mary Katherine recounts that stories from the history of nursing in which other clinical providers have found a way to live out their calling in the midst of questions and uncertainty have helped her.