Pandemic activities for premeds
With colleges closed indefinitely and all but essential personnel banned from the hospital pre-medical students are left wondering how to stay involved in extracurricular activities that will help them prepare for medical school. One of the traits that are important for a future physician is resiliency and creativity in crisis. Don’t give up your drive, this is an opportunity to be helpful. There are many communities suffering and many projects trying to stay afloat that might be grateful for the volunteerism. If the pandemic has kept you from your regular activities? Here are some ideas on how to stay involved.
Continue what you already do remotely: Assess the activities you are already involved in. Reach out to your supervisors to determine if there is a way to assist remotely. For example, can you do online fundraising? Can you still plan future activities like global health experiences next year? Or find out what global health needs you can address from home? Can you tutor via zoom. Start with what you are already involved in and brainstorm how you can accomplish the same tasks remotely. Is there data analysis or writing for your research that you can continue remotely? Systematically review your activities and ask yourself, “Is there a portion of this work that I can still do remotely?”, then reach out to your advisor and set it up. Were you working at a hospice or nursing home? Can you still “Zoom” or “Facetime” with your patients? Can you help them set up ways for their families to do this? Could you start a drive to donate ipads/iphones or other technology to allow them to stay connected with family? If you are a scribe or planned to be a scribe can you be a tele scribe?
For those who had planned new activities that have now been cancelled here are some ideas for alternate activities that might be looking for help that could fill a gap year or until your school reopens.
Teaching/Tutoring: There are many students struggling with the change in format from in person to online work. If you have teaching or tutoring skills you could set up an account at several online tutoring sites and get to work tutoring high school students or fellow college students in the sciences. You can check out already established tutoring platforms such as Wyzant or start a course on Udemy.
Helping the Helpers: Many med students across the country in a desire to help have set up structures to assist the frontline doctors. For example, at the Warren Alpert Medical School at Brown University, students set up Alpert Med Response Aid to help physicians on the frontlines with childcare, errands, homeschooling or making phone calls to patients. Do you live near a medical school? Have they set up a support system for physicians? Can you reach out to a physician you have shadowed and ask if they need help calling patients or setting up telemedicine? Do you have a separate self-contained space in your home you could offer up as a quarantine/isolation space for a resident that has been quarantined?
Gathering or making supplies: One pressing issue on the frontline is Personal Protective Equipment supplies. Do you have a contact that you can use to get more PPE to vulnerable populations or to healthcare workers? Could you start collecting supplies from those who don’t need them urgently and redistribute them where they are needed? Do you sew? Some hospital systems are not allowing home made masks, however, these might be good to distribute to vulnerable people in your community. People with 3D printers are having hack-a-thons printing 3 way valves for ventilators or designing respiratory shields to safely intubate patients without aerosolizing virus.
Helping your neighbor: Can you grocery shop for a neighbor? Take out their trash. Walk their dog. Drop off a take out meal. Old school helping out with daily chores is a huge way to contribute to those who cannot leave their homes due to disability or risk. Can you teach them to use Alexa to listen to an audiobook or music? Can you just keep them company and play virtual games with them to keep them cognitively active?
Helping essential companies: Overall the workforce is suffering due to closures and stay at home orders, however, some essential industries need help or are “booming”. If you need paid employment for a gap year or because your work study is no longer available you may even be able to obtain a paid position. Companies you could reach out to for volunteer or paid opportunities include telemedicine companies such as Teladoc, Amwell, MDLIve. Maybe you can’t be in a patient care environment that needs full PPE but you could become a pharmacy tech. The news media never stops - start your own blog, contribute to a blog, or write for an online or local paper or magazine.
What matters most is the effort, not the task. Do not use this time to be complacent, use it do demonstrate initiative, leadership and resiliency. Find a need and meet it.
