Donielle Bowie: The good doctor

WHILE growing up in the small community of Retreat, St Mary, Donielle Bowie’s mother would often refer to her affectionately as her “little future doctor”. This title became a self-fulfilling prophecy, as little Donielle never even considered another career path. She saw herself as a doctor, so she would stop at nothing until she became one. And at 28 years old, after a challenging journey to complete her education, Dr Donielle Bowie is on the front line as a junior resident at the Spanish Town Hospital in St Catherine.

“My grandmother and my father always enforced that I do my best no matter what I am doing,” she told All Woman virtually, as she unwound from an eventful shift at work. “My grandmother always said, ‘If you are a street sweeper, sweep streets to the best of your ability so that when you die people will remember you as the greatest street sweeper that ever lived’, and I always carried that saying with me.”

Regardless of the grades on the report cards she brought home from Retreat Primary and Junior High School, her father, who was a storekeeper on a cruise ship, would only ask her one question: ‘Did you do your best, Donielle?’. So she clung to this advice dearly and has since challenged and reassured herself that her best is indeed good enough.

“Another part of the reason why I went in the direction of medicine was that the adults in my community used to tell me that I was very bright, just like my dad, and my grandmother once told me that my father went to The University of the West Indies (UWI), and he wanted to study to become a doctor, but he couldn’t afford to complete his studies,” she shared.

But after leaving Immaculate Conception High School for girls and enrolling at The UWI, the small town girl soon realised that becoming a doctor would be no small feat. The highest hurdle was a financial one.

“Even though I had the 50 per cent bursary it was very difficult to find the rest of the fees,” she said. “There were a few times when I would be deregistered for non-payment right before exams, and in the times when I should have been studying, even up to the night before the exams, I would be up and down trying to figure out where the money was coming from.”

Still, with the financial burden weighing down her mind and affecting her ability to retain knowledge, and even entering exams without some course grades that she could not have attained because she was deregistered, Dr Bowie poured out nothing but her best, and it was indeed good enough.

To someone looking in from the outside or scrolling through the modelesque pictures on her Instagram feed it would appear as if Dr Bowie is now living the dream. But she reasoned that her dream might turn out to be a complete nightmare for someone else, especially in a time like this, if they don’t love the profession.

“This field requires a lot of sacrifice,” she said seriously. “You have to be prepared to sacrifice family time, social time, and personal time. If you don’t have a genuine passion or a genuine love for medicine don’t do it, because it will be physically and mentally draining. But if you love what you do it will all be worth it.”

One of the things that makes it all worth it for Dr Bowie is seeing her former patients, some of whom may have been critically ill in the hospital, up and about leading normal lives.

“Another thing that’s also rewarding for me is hearing a baby’s first cry after doing a caesarean section,” she beamed. “Just being able to deliver that baby safely and hearing the baby cry for the first time, it’s a lovely feeling.”

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr Bowie confessed that she is more worried for her country than she is for herself.

“I feel like people are underestimating how bad this can get and how much worse it can affect us. Even at the hospital people will come in and wear the mask on their foreheads and their chins and still bundle to have conversations,” she pointed out. “I wish people would just heed the warnings and stay home unless it is completely necessary, and wear their masks correctly when they have to go out.”

While she enjoys the banter with her patients and colleagues while doing her rounds on the ward, and she enjoys staying in and writing on her days off, the ‘hot doc’ is yearning for the day when she can go to the beach again.

“I just want the freedom to go to the beach when I can, with my very close friends, with a glass of Appleton and cranberry juice,” she laughed.

Post-COVID-19, Dr Bowie has intentions of completing her residency in obstetrics and gynaecology. She also looks forward to someday being married with children. She is also making strides in entrepreneurship, as she is working behind the scenes to develop two businesses.

Regardless of what the future holds, though, the ‘little doctor from Retreat’ will continue to do her best.

“I just want to do as much good as I can for as many people as I can before I leave this world,” she said thoughtfully.

“And not just in health services, and not necessarily financially, but I just want to give as much as possible while I’m on this Earth.”