“The response by volunteers to our online initiative was immediate” ****************************************************************************************** * “The response by volunteers was immediate” ****************************************************************************************** ****************************************************************************************** * An interview with the First Faculty of Medicine’s David Kulišiak ****************************************************************************************** Students at Charles University’s medical faculties wasted little time in pooling their str face of the coronavirus pandemic, with many volunteering to help even before the governmen key resolution making it mandatory (for those in their final years of study). Each faculty organisational team and the student initiative at the First Faculty of Medicine in Prague by sixth year student David Kulišiak, whose facebook campaign quickly brought students tog last week. I asked him a little earlier how things are looking right now. I can say that more than 1,000 volunteer med students at CU’s First Faculty of Medicine ar helping or are ready to help. A week ago, even before the government resolution requiring students to help was issued, we created a facebook page asking for volunteers. Students re immediately. We used a survey which we asked volunteers to fill in, emphasising whether th immediately or in the future. At the moment, there are some 450 Czech students and 150 foreign students studying in Engl either already helping or will soon. These are students from our own faculty; the Second a have their own coordination teams. That means that hospitals in Prague, for example, are a the different faculties. We are volunteering at six of those (which traditionally cooperat Faculty of Medicine including the General University Hospital in Prague. We are also in to Prague and ambulance emergency services. We have twenty people helping emergency services either already working or getting registered. We are not just talking about final-year students obviously… We have students from across the spectrum at the First Faculty of Medicine – from future g practitioners to dentists to addictologists. They provided us with the info and then we di filter who could go where, based also on the needs of the individual hospitals. So they te 10 people to help in administration there and that would go mostly to first-years. Students in higher years such as fourth, fifth and six are sent to hospitals to help with Our team is the first point of contact and we try and provide for the hospitals’ needs the We know about the government resolution requiring the fifth and sixth years to help but we this effort in the same vein as it began: as volunteer work. We are in cooperation not onl faculties in Prague but across the Czech Republic. All the coordinating heads are working bringing together all medical faculties in this country, which means altogether eight. Not that the resolution didn’t need to be passed, but it’s encouraging and admirable that reacted of their own accord; so you came forward to confront the situation – nobody needed anyone to help. Yes. Last week when I spoke to head of the General University Hospital he stated very clea of help would be needed and that led to our forming this initiative. Last Thursday we had people, which quickly grew to hundreds. What has the reaction been? The help is of course appreciated. Communicating with hospital HRs they appreciate what is we send someone almost every day. They don’t have to ask and they are sent students direct are waiting to see what the situation will be because it is changing from hour to hour. When you talk about students helping in hospitals, they are close to everything, but you’v not in the frontline so to speak… When it comes to the coronavirus Na Homolce Hospital, which is not among the six, is at th in the Czech Republic. Neither are out students the ones who are testing people. These are as helping nurses and working as orderlies and helping in the clinics and administration. University Hospital, for example, needed help in administration and paperwork and we are h It’s one of the six universities with which we have an agreement. The students are active and at work at a time when everyone else who can stay and work fro ordered to do so. In that sense they are greater risk than the greater population; do they facemasks and other items for their protection? We raised that question obviously and the first thing we needed to know was that they woul workers, that they would be insured. All of the volunteers have officially been hired by t which means they are covered by insurance and have access to all hygiene items. We also ha coordination teams who are asking them if they have enough of what they need. So we have a everything is as it should be. The Covid-19 pandemic is like nothing we’ve seen before. Just a few weeks ago, when the se perhaps not as obvious, I heard opinions that medical students potentially helping could b experience in terms of their education or professional futures. Do you think that is the c As a sixth year student myself, I can say that all of us would prefer not having this expe focus instead on regular studies. We’d rather have all of our clinical subjects, including rounds at hospitals, normally. Certainly, no one has seen anything like this since the Fir afterwards, when the Spanish flu spread around the world and killed around 50 million peop situation for everyone. I guess the experience may prove “valuable” in some sense, but we would vastly prefer for normal and not as they are. We have a pandemic and the epicentre has moved to Europe. The and we are witnessing the most rapid growth while in China it appears to have lessened. Th quarantine means that most people have restricted their movement. On the way to the dean’s on the way home, I saw very few people in the streets and those I did all had their faces fantastic [Editor’s note: mandatory for all citizens as of March 18 at six pm]. Social distancing is also one of the most important ways to try and quash the rising numbe It was up to the government to decide what was best for public health but restrictions in seem to have help slow the spread of the virus. There, they have already closed some of th were rapidly built to deal with the situation in the first months. So that is great. The w spread can be dampened or prevented if people take special care to follow all the guidelin distance. The best way to do it is to prohibit people from gathering outside of their homes: when yo you can forget and shake their hand or kiss by accident or out of habit. This way if you g to work or to a park and when you come back you wash your hands the way it has been taught a difference and can help improve the situation hopefully, so the numbers might not be as Italy or Spain. It may be too early to think about this but: what about when all of this ends? From a psyc perspective should we imagine a time when all of this will be behind us? Or is it better t from one day to the next? That’s a question I have heard from some of the older people who are under great pressure all this information. Wondering, when will we able to meet together? To go out again to a Or go to the cinema for instance, which was the first thing prohibited. I would say I hope will improve in the coming weeks or months, with a decrease of patients with the virus and keeping the risk of fatalities at zero. We want to keep those numbers down but we also don situation is going to develop. ░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ David░Kulišiak,░coordinator░of░student░volunteers░at░the░First░Faculty░of░Medicine,░is░fro Anatomy”░since░2015.░Working░as░an░assistant,░he░says,░gave░him░not░just░valuable░new░expe Useful information and updates online: Facebook: Dobro1lf Instagram: dobro1lf #dobro1lf