Department of Transfusion Medicine, Sanquin Blood Bank, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Technical University of Munich, School of Medicine, TUM Medical Education Center, Ismaninger Straße 22, 81675, Munich, Germany.
BMC Med Educ. 2020 Oct 2;20(1):342. doi: 10.1186/s12909-020-02261-8.
Worldwide it is being discussed whether medical students might be of help during the present COVID-19 epidemic. Although this question is probably a legitimate one, one should however discuss this thoroughly before deciding whether medical students are to be included in this kind of medical care on a larger scale.Various arguments should be weighted, and potential tasks should be chosen carefully. This period could however be also an opportunity for medical students to learn things they would probably never learn about. Nevertheless, medical students have a deficit concerning knowledge about epidemics, and they are also not really well skilled in many hygiene measures. Furthermore, some of the known medical students' behaviour could be a risk factor for further spread of the virus as well. Then, young adults are at risk of getting infected themselves. Last but not least, medical students in general are under a great deal of pressure from their studies which could lead to the development of anxiety and other mental disorders. One could only speculate on the effects of this epidemic on their further mental well-being. Therefore, medical students participating in direct care of patients with COVID-19 should first be trained well, and then properly supervised at all times. Only then it might be a really useful and exceptional experience, for healthcare, medical schools as well as for society.
目前全球都在讨论医学生是否可以在本次 COVID-19 疫情中提供帮助。尽管这个问题可能是合理的，但在决定是否将医学生纳入更大规模的这种医疗护理之前，应该对此进行充分讨论。应该权衡各种论点，并谨慎选择潜在的任务。但这个时期也可能是医学生学习他们可能永远不会了解的事情的机会。然而，医学生在传染病知识方面存在不足，他们在许多卫生措施方面也不是真正熟练。此外，一些已知的医学生的行为也可能成为病毒进一步传播的风险因素。然后，年轻人自己也有感染的风险。最后但同样重要的是，医学生通常承受着来自学业的巨大压力，这可能导致焦虑和其他精神障碍的发展。人们只能推测这种流行病对他们进一步的精神健康的影响。因此，参与 COVID-19 患者直接护理的医学生首先应该接受良好的培训，并在任何时候都得到适当的监督。只有这样，这才可能是对医疗保健、医学院校以及整个社会真正有用和特殊的体验。
