covid 19- business as usual?

[Guest]

(03-14-2020, 10:43 PM)samsang Wrote: UCSD will be fine, when I sub-i'ed they have minimal volume, so the residents will be safe

so savage

[Guest]

What has everyone's med school done about this?

[Guest]

My school has implemented distance learning for preclinical students for the rest of this year. Clinical rotations are suspended for the next 2 weeks in accordance with the AAMC and LCME recommendation yesterday. Match Day ceremony is going to be modified with students having the options to open envelopes at school in small groups, take envelopes and leave, or receive results electronically. Away rotations are still allowed, but that is subject to change.

Midwest state school.

[Guest]

(03-18-2020, 11:41 AM)Guest Wrote: My school has implemented distance learning for preclinical students for the rest of this year. Clinical rotations are suspended for the next 2 weeks in accordance with the AAMC and LCME recommendation yesterday. Match Day ceremony is going to be modified with students having the options to open envelopes at school in small groups, take envelopes and leave, or receive results electronically. Away rotations are still allowed, but that is subject to change.  

Midwest state school.

Why are schools suspending rotations?

[Guest]

To limit people spreading the virus in the hospital and to the community. Also some hospitals are running short on PPE. This is definitely a debated topic, but I think the school administrator's hands were tied when the AAMC and LCME made the recommendation.

[Guest]

(03-18-2020, 11:56 AM)Guest Wrote: To limit people spreading the virus in the hospital and to the community. Also some hospitals are running short on PPE. This is definitely a debated topic, but I think the school administrator's hands were tied when the AAMC and LCME made the recommendation.

But why did the AAMC/LCME make the recommendation?  This is part of the job.  Medical students should be given more responsibility to help the system that is over strained.

[Guest]

Like I said, it's very debated. IMO we should be helping/learning how to manage a crisis. This is a great opportunity for medical education. But the main arguments against it are that it adds people who can potentially spread the virus. And med students are very limited in what we can actually do. There is a couple hundred post long thread on SDN about it if you want to join the debate.

[Guest]

By that argument, we shouldn't have any doctors or nurses in the hospital.

Look at what Italy did, they graduated the entire senior class early. The only reason medical students are limited is a) they don't want to do anything b) the school administration is afraid of liability. This scenario is clearly different, they should be there the same as residents.

[Guest]

I 100% agree. I would sign up for that if they gave me the option.

[Guest]

(03-18-2020, 12:35 PM)Guest Wrote: By that argument, we shouldn't have any doctors or nurses in the hospital.

Look at what Italy did, they graduated the entire senior class early.  The only reason medical students are limited is a) they don't want to do anything b) the school administration is afraid of liability.  This scenario is clearly different, they should be there the same as residents.

No, they shouldn't. Just be honest, besides taking care of grunt work med students don't contribute much at all to the team. It's a waste of valuable PPE, and a high chance that a young person gets infected and spreads throughout the community for the 5-6 days they're asymptomatic. At my institution not even residents/fellows are allowed to intubate these patients so that it's done by the most skilled, lowest risk people.

Sure it's great learning, but a global crisis is not the time for learning. You wouldn't learn how to work a gun from the front lines of a war, and you shouldn't be learning how to treat ARDS for the first time during a pandemic.