Distance learning may have emptied out college classrooms around the region to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus, but that hasn’t stopped medical students from finding other ways to help.听
There are doctors, nurses and lots of others in the health care industry who are working every day at a time when their kids are being kept out of the classroom or day care center, leaving them with one more thing to stress about on top of fraught situations at work.
That鈥檚 where about 150 local medical students are trying to step in.
They call themselves the Organized by students at the George Washington Medical School, it also includes medical students from Georgetown and Howard Universities.
鈥淎 lot of the medical students right now, we actually are not allowed in the hospital if we鈥檙e on rotations and if we have classes, everything is virtual right now,鈥� said Adam Munday, a second year medical school student at George Washington University.
鈥淪o our workload has substantially reduced so we鈥檙e trying to do what we can to help the community and help the health care workers that we would be trying to help and learn from otherwise.鈥�
The idea for this came from a similar effort at Dartmouth College.
鈥淲e鈥檙e a completely student run group,鈥� said Wesley Ng, a fourth-year medical student at George Washington. 鈥淔rom there we just kind of got several other medical students who were interested to help out and we were able to reach across different schools in the DC area to make this happen.鈥�
This child care is all being offered for free to those who work in the health care industry.
鈥淭hese are people on the front lines of the pandemic,鈥� Munday said. 鈥淭hese are people that have to go to work and a lot of child care facilities have closed, au pairs have left, and they don鈥檛 have anyone to babysit their kids.鈥�
To be specific, 鈥淲e are trying to first target medical residences who don鈥檛 have quite as much financial means as someone who is a full attending physician,鈥� added Ng. 鈥淲e鈥檙e also looking at nurses as well as medical assistants.鈥�
In order to reduce the chance that the coronavirus will spread this way, the student volunteers are getting matched specifically to families and won鈥檛 be bouncing around from house to house.
鈥淓ach student is only allowed to work with one parent at a time,鈥� said Munday. 鈥淚f they cease to work with that family they have to go through a two-week waiting period to start working with another family. We鈥檙e making sure that these students aren鈥檛 going to multiple health care providers鈥� houses.
鈥淲e鈥檙e also recommending that every student that is taking part in this: Don鈥檛 live with older family members,鈥� Munday said. 鈥淭ry to make sure that you鈥檙e just protecting yourself and your loved ones if you鈥檙e out here volunteering to provide child care.鈥�
- Sign up for news alerts from 草莓传媒
- Closings and delays
- 鈥楨xtremely unusual鈥�: Md. 7-Eleven employee tests positive for coronavirus after co-worker fakes test result
- Food trucks take to the road to survive coronavirus outbreak
- Traffic and transit changes in DC, Md. and Va. during coronavirus response
- Coronavirus test results in DC, Maryland and Virginia
- Coronavirus FAQ: What you need to know
