Since last week, University of Ottawa medical students Heidi Li and Simran Aggarwal, in a flurry of emails, have rallied more than 70 volunteer medical students and matched them with 50 healthcare professionals who have submitted requests for support.
The initiative matches one healthcare professional family in the Ottawa-area with a medical student who has childcare and babysitting experience or who is willing to run minor errands.
“Right now we can’t be on the wards, but what we can do is help healthcare workers – not just doctors, but allied health professionals as well, including nurses and social workers,” says Li, a third-year medical student who had her clerkship interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. “It’s very important in times like these to know that you’re not alone. That’s the silver lining amid all of the negativity and fear right now – we can come together as a community to support each other.”
“As medical students, we’re trained to care for others and we’re trained to be leaders. We want to help any way we can,” says Aggarwal, who is in her second year at uOttawa.
As aspiring doctors, both Li and Aggarwal agree they could one day be in the same position of needing a helping hand as they focus on saving lives.
So far, tasks for volunteer medical students have ranged from providing childcare for a single mum with three kids, to picking up groceries for an emergency room doctor who is in quarantine.
“We have had some very cute requests; like one parent saying that her three kids were really cute and well-behaved…It’s been very heart-warming. We’re having an impact,” says Aggarwal.
“Healthcare providers are struggling with school closures. It’s really hard to find good childcare immediately even in the best of times. As medical students, we already have our police checks, immunization records and basic first aid skills. This is very reassuring for parents,” says Li.
According to Aggarwal, all of Canada’s 17 medical schools are involved in the initiative to some degree and the idea is spreading to the U.S. and Australia. The uOttawa scheme, which is not affiliated with the Faculty of Medicine, follows ground rules set by medical students at the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry at Western University, in London, Ontario.
These include linking each student with only one family to minimize the risk of spreading COVID-19. Students are also asked not to volunteer if they have travelled recently, been in close contact with anyone with COVID-19 or are likely to visit vulnerable or elderly people.
A healthcare worker passed along this message: “I just wanted to say thank you so much to all of you for doing this. Seeing efforts like this restores my faith in humanity.”