Getting By Through Music: How A Fargo VA Doctor Deals With COVID-19 Stress

"But, I didn't know it was going to save me, eventually, from getting burned out."

FARGO, N.D.- “We can prescribe a pill that can cure the body, but singing sort of cures the soul,” says Yuri Nakasato, a Rheumatologist at the Fargo VA Hospital.

Dr. Yuri Nakasato has been using tunes to escape from the challenging times that have been looming over him for the last couple of months.

“A way to be somewhere else. Which is a beautiful place and you know, taking you away from reality, more like a therapy,” Nakasato said.

Nakasato left his home in Peru to follow his dream of being a Rheumatologist.

A dream he realized at the Fargo’s VA Hospital.

But the pandemic that started months after he began his job left him with a lot of stress and anxiety.

“I need to read about the Coronavirus, and I need to know every single detail about it. Every data, I was listening to every single piece of news,” Nakasato said.

Nakasato realized these habits were not healthy.

That’s how a once in a lifetime pandemic inspired new dreams.

“But, I didn’t know it was going to save me, eventually, from getting burned out,” Nakasato said.

Nakasato has been taking virtual classes twice a week.

It’s the days he looks forward to the most.

He says he hopes to soon be able to spread the joy that singing brings to him to his patients.

“I think it’ll be nice for them to see a doctor singing to bring this message of hope that everything is going to be ok,” Nakasato adds.

Dr. Nakasato has been posting his progress on a Youtube Channel.

Here is the link.