Medical students are pitching in where they can, to help the licensed medical professionals on the front lines as they continue to work towards their educational goals. Used to juggling work, home, and social life, these future medical practitioners and nurses are filling invaluable roles. Here are just a few ways tomorrow's leaders are lessening the stress for frontline workers.
Helping with Routine Outpatient Clinical Care
Medical students are stepping up and continuing to learn is by helping with outpatient care. Routine care, which includes everything from cancer screenings and sick visits to x-rays for broken bones and burns from kitchen mishaps, still require a nurse, doctor, or resident's care. Additionally, pregnant women still need care, and its vital children get their regularly scheduled vaccinations. While licensed physicians are working to treat and save COVID-19 patients, medical students can gain invaluable experience and provide care for everyone else.
Assisting Attending Physicians with Non-COVID-19 Inpatient Care
Just as students are moving in to assist with routine, outpatient care, help is needed in hospitals. While the news is only talking about pandemic-related care, hospitals are still full of other patients for a variety of reasons. These people, which includes children with illnesses, accident victims, and adults with non-COVID-related conditions, such as cancer, heart attacks, ulcers, and severe infections. Like outpatient services, medical students can achieve a wealth experience while helping short-staffed hospitals meet patients' care needs.
Providing Child Care Services for Frontline Staff
It's hard to concentrate on your job when you have children and their care to worry about. Special daycare and school-age care facilities are opening to help care for the kids of frontline workers. Medical students can help relieve stress by spending a few hours per day interacting with and helping care for COVID-19 caregivers' children. If you're trying to juggle working hours with studying time, this is an excellent way to keep a happy balance in your life.
Tutoring Children, Teens, and Undergraduates with Classwork
Millions of parents around the world just became their children's primary teachers. Doctors, nurses, and other practitioners on the frontline may not have the time or energy to help their children. Medical students have the knowledge to help with a wide range of subjects for younger and older students, including university undergraduates.
Additionally, high school and first-year college students may be feeling overwhelmed between the pandemic and trying to complete assignments from home. Along with helping these students with academics, many will benefit from guidance on how to handle stress and developing good study habits.
Caring for Pets of Frontline Medical Professionals
It may sound menial, but people love their pets tremendously, and it breaks their hearts to leave them alone. If you don't have much time between responsibilities at home and studying for your medical studies exams, taking an hour or two out of your day to care for a health care professional's cats, dogs, birds, or even their fish is a great way to reduce stress for them. It will also keep COVID caregivers' minds focused on patients.
In fact, for medical students with a full course load that needs to study and still want to help, consider pet sitting.
Other Ways to Reduce Stress for COVID-19 Caregivers
There are several smaller things medical students can do to help frontline caregivers. With 12-hour shifts, America's heroes don't have the time or energy to go shopping. Online deliveries are taking a week, two weeks, and even longer. Physical stores have bare shelves, and popular items disappear before most health care workers get through their first hour of work.
Medical Students on the Frontline
Some health cares students are on the front line in a limited medical role. Testing is vital to stopping the spread of COVID-19. Medical students are suiting up alongside other professionals and taking patient's history and handling all aspects of testing locations that are popping up across the country.
It’s important for medical students to continue studying especially those preparing for USMLE Step 1 and 2, as those are difficult exams and since most of the universities are closed, a good option is to study online. There are many platforms that offer quality content for USMLE Step 1, like Lecturio (an online education platform that offers USMLE® videos by teaching award-winning professors and the most advanced Step 1 Qbank).
