How medical students can respond to the Covid-19 pandemic

Screen capture of the Facebook page of the Malaysian medical student initiative Students Against Covid-19 that disseminates up-to-date and correct facts on the disease.

In light of the Covid-19 pandemic, many educational institutions worldwide have suspended physical classes to maintain social distancing. Many medical schools have also followed suit and temporarily stopped classes and clinical rotations for their medical students.

Several European governments have been seeking help from graduating medical students to join forces with their healthcare workers on the front lines. Italy, the European country that originally was the hardest hit until its number of cases was surpassed by Spain, has fast-tracked at least 10,000 medical students to join their future colleagues in healthcare in combating Covid-19.

In the United States, now the epicentre of the pandemic, the government has come up with plans to integrate medical students into the healthcare system. A large number of medical schools, such as the Harvard Medical School, New York University and Boston University, have offered early graduation to their medical students to add more helping hands to healthcare facilities.

While this only applies to graduating medical students, medical students at an earlier stage of their studies from across the globe have come up with other ways to contribute to the battle against the pandemic. Student-led volunteer groups that include medical students have been assisting medical workers and community workers with tasks like childcare, collection of personal protective equipment (PPE), screening the homeless, and grocery shopping for healthcare workers and the elderly. Some medical students are also helping to develop public service announcements related to Covid-19 so that more members of the public can understand the basic facts about the disease and its prevention and control.

In Malaysia, most tertiary institutions, including medical schools, have suspended physical classes since early March. At this point, it is expected that lessons will be resumed via online distant learning by the end of April. While exercising social distancing is already a helpful way to fight this pandemic, Malaysian medical students may wish to play a more active role in facing this ordeal. They could initiate their own group or organisation to become actively involved with support groups lending a helping hand to the needy.

One such Malaysian initiative is Students Against Covid-19, a public Facebook group, formed by medical students to disseminate up-to-date and correct facts on the disease. It is “a collective group aimed at empowering students with facts and information to fight Covid-19”. Verified and practical information is posted by medical students.

Another initiative, the International Student Surgical Network (InciSioN), contributes to the battle against Covid-19 by organising its members from around the world into a committee dedicated to raising Covid-19 awareness and providing education; the Malaysian arm is at facebook.com/InciSioNMalaysia.

Malaysian medical students, however, seem to be less involved in easing the strain on our healthcare system when compared with medical students in European countries and the United States. Of course, these countries have had to take more drastic measures than Malaysia after becoming overwhelmed with sudden increases in Covid-19 cases.

With the extension of Malaysia’s movement control order (MCO) period till April 28, this could be a phase for our medical students to revisit weaker subjects, to take the time for personal reflection, and plan how to become a better student and also a global citizen.

Medical students should also take advantage of this MCO period to expand their horizons by taking free online classes. Universities such as the John Hopkins University, and even organisations such as the World Health Organisation are offering a variety of public health and Covid-19-related online courses for free.

Universiti Malaya’s Health Research Online has been offering introductory courses to health research that is made available to members of the university’s Faculty of Medicine. It is without a doubt that medical researchers are important in the healthcare system, and this need is greatly amplified during this period. So if you are a medical student, why not avail yourself to early exposure to the health research process?

Malaysian medical students may also be innovative and proactive in taking the load off our frontliners by coming up with practical ways to serve the community. If circumstances permit, they could join a team of volunteers, especially in organisations that aid the needy, like the homeless and university students living away from their homes. Any form of help can be instrumental in tackling the health and non-health impact of COVID-19 on Malaysians.

JEMIMA BENG-ENG HII, SING-QIN TING, WOON-THENG HENG, YEK-CHING KONG, Dr NIRMALA BHOO PATHY & Dr RAFDZAH AHMAD ZAKI

Universiti Malaya Medical Programme