Sra Manraj, Gupta Amulya, Jaiswal Abhishek, Yadav Kapil, Goswami Anil, Goswami Kiran
Undergraduate students All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Ansari Nagar, New Delhi 110029, India.
Centre for Community Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Ansari Nagar, New Delhi 110029, India.
Natl Med J India. 2022 Jul-Aug;35(4):247-251. doi: 10.25259/NMJI_104_21.
Background The involvement of medical students in strategies to control Covid-19 might be considered to cope with the shortage of healthcare workers. We assessed the knowledge about Covid-19, willingness to volunteer, potential areas of involvement and reasons for hesitation among medical students towards volunteering. Methods We did this cross-sectional study among undergraduate students at a tertiary care teaching hospital in New Delhi. We used a web-based questionnaire to elicit demographic information, knowledge of Covid-19, willingness to volunteer and reasons deterring them from working during the Covid-19 pandemic, and self-declared knowledge in six domains. Results A total of 292 students participated in the study with a mean (SD) age of 19.9 (3.1) years. The mean (SD) knowledge score of Covid-19 was 6.9 (1.1) (maximum score 10). Knowledge score was significantly different among preclinical (6.5), paraclinical (7.18) and clinical groups (7.03). Almost three-fourth (75.3%) participants were willing to volunteer in the Covid-19 pandemic, though 67.8% had not received any training in emergency medicine or public health crisis management. Willingness to work was maximum in areas of social work and indirect patient care (62.3% each). Lack of personal protective equipment was cited as a highly deterring factor for volunteering (62.7%) followed by fear of transmitting the infection to family members (45.9%), fear of causing harm to the patient (34.2%) and the absence of available treatment (22.2%). Conclusions A majority of the students were willing to volunteer even though they had not received adequate training. Students may serve as an auxiliary force during the pandemic, especially in non-clinical settings.
背景 医学生参与控制新冠疫情的策略可能被视为应对医护人员短缺的一种方式。我们评估了医学生对新冠疫情的了解、志愿服务意愿、潜在参与领域以及对志愿服务犹豫不决的原因。方法 我们在新德里一家三级护理教学医院对本科生进行了这项横断面研究。我们使用基于网络的问卷来获取人口统计学信息、对新冠疫情的了解、志愿服务意愿以及在新冠疫情期间阻碍他们工作的原因，以及在六个领域的自我宣称知识。结果 共有292名学生参与了该研究，平均（标准差）年龄为19.9（3.1）岁。新冠疫情知识的平均（标准差）得分是6.9（1.1）（满分10分）。临床前组（6.5）、临床旁组（7.18）和临床组（7.03）的知识得分存在显著差异。几乎四分之三（75.3%）的参与者愿意在新冠疫情期间志愿服务，尽管67.8%的人没有接受过任何急诊医学或公共卫生危机管理方面的培训。在社会工作和间接患者护理领域工作的意愿最高（均为62.3%）。缺乏个人防护设备被认为是志愿服务的一个高度阻碍因素（62.7%），其次是担心将感染传播给家庭成员（45.9%）、担心对患者造成伤害（34.2%）以及没有可用的治疗方法（22.2%）。结论 尽管大多数学生没有接受过充分的培训，但他们愿意志愿服务。在疫情期间，学生可以作为一支辅助力量，特别是在非临床环境中。
