This week, I would like to talk about the efforts that medical students are making to help the cause. I believe any contribution, big or small, clinical or not, has the potential of leaving an impact.
Medical students at University of Tennessee Health Science Center believe that it is important that all members of society should be educated about COVID-19, including children. Young kids are undeniably facing a difficult time right now, away from outside stimulation, friends, and physical contact. They do not understand the depth and complexity of the pandemic, these medical students have created fliers to help kids understand the importance of social distancing and the seriousness regarding the number of deaths in the country. The fliers are colorful and easy to read.
In Massachusetts, medical students are voluntarily helping Harvard Medical School-affiliated hospitals handle the influx of COVID patients. Even though clinical clerkships for third and fourth years students have been temporarily suspended, these students formed response teams organized into four committees: "medical education for the student community; educational information for the broader community; medical support to assist frontline clinical responders; and nonclinical support for the broader health care community, as well as for vulnerable populations within Boston, such as the homeless and elderly."
As Aashka and Anissa mentioned, students are taking on less critical patients to help out other healthcare professionals. This includes taking on regularly scheduled low-risk patients, translating COVID information into other languages, gathering PPE, assisting with lab reports in cardiology clinics, and staffing telephone hotlines. Students have also provided lists of available volunteers to hospitals so they can be matched with help. Harvard is the first medical with those sort of response structure and they are sharing the organizational details with other medical schools in the country.
It is also worth noting that Harvard, with the help of 35 student volunteers, has generated a new COVID-19 curriculum for current students that focuses on "virology, epidemiology, the current health care response and communicating information to nonmedical audiences."
Students in Detroit have volunteered to test city employees, including police officers, firefighters, and bus drivers for COVID while wearing full protective gear. Detroit is one of America's hardest-hit and vulnerable communities, so it is extremely brave of these medical students to volunteer in the area. They swab people and run tests in rapid-response machines. The point of testing employees is to determine if they are apt to work or if they should go home.
"Roughly 80 students from medical schools at Wayne State, the University of Michigan and Michigan State University" were recruited to volunteer. In other places, students are helping with childcare for healthcare workers, screening patients, and delivering food. There is an emphasis for students to get a crash course in public health to be more informed about health disparities.
- By: Raaga Rambhatla