Quō vādis? from disaster management to building community resiliency: Medical reserve corps and their unique potential.

BACKGROUND

Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) in the U.S. provide an approach to organize and incorporate trained public health and medical professionals and supplement the current public health workforce. During the COVID-19 pandemic, MRCs provided immunizations, educated the general public, and assisted with community screening and testing. Reports of MRC activities are publicly available; however, their challenges are not well discussed. Therefore, this exploratory study aimed to identify some challenges that MRC units faced during the COVID-19 pandemic.

METHODS

This cross-sectional pilot study aimed to address the composition, recruitment, and training of MRC volunteers and their responses during the pandemic. The survey consisted of 18 close-ended questions across 3 domains: (1) structure and designation of the MRC unit, (2) recruitment and training opportunities for volunteers; (3) demographics; and 2 open-ended questions.

RESULTS

A total of 568 units across 23 states were invited to participate in this exploratory study with only 29 units completing the survey. Out of 29 respondents, 72% were female and 28% male, 45% were nurses, 10% were physicians, and 5% were pharmacists. Retired members were reported in 58% of MRC units, while 62% reported members being active professionals. Qualitative analysis revealed two themes -

CONCLUSIONS

In this exploratory pilot study, we identified the challenges of MRC units during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our findings indicated variation in composition and type of volunteers at different MRC units that may be considered in planning for future disasters and emergencies.