Final yr medicos join Covid battle

In a follow-up to the directives from the central and state governments to final- year medical students to join duty and serve in Covid wards, over 250 students from medical colleges in the state would do special training outside of their regular fields so as to help those in need.

The government’s directive prompted a team of doctors and public health experts in the state to hold special online webinars to inform and teach students on practical treatments and differences between handling and risk assessment during the first and second Covid waves.

The team led by Dr P.S. Vijayender, a public health expert and professor at one of the medical colleges in the state, has

THE GOVERNMENT’S directive prompted a team of doctors and public health experts in the state to hold special online webinars to inform and teach students on practical treatments and differences between handling and risk assessment during the first and second Covid waves. been taking these classes for the past five days. They started it with about 30-40 volunteers from final year medical courses, and are now adding about 100 every day.

“My idea to start this training was to help lift off a part of the burden on our medical practitioners. These students on the way to become healthcare workers need to be able to help the needy efficiently. For that, they need expert training from as many doctors as possible before they jump into the real world. So far, practitioners like Dr Karuna Madap, a pediatrician and another doctor from AIIMS Rishikesh have helped with the classes,” said Dr Vijayender.

Several students from among these 250 have started helping patients reaching out to Seva Bharathi with tele-consultation. A final year student, Spoorthi, taking the special training, said she has helped about 1015 patients with different problems relating to Covid.

“It has been really helpful. Since last year, we have barely been able to get any practical training. A lot of us are not even sure that we will be able to handle the situation. This has given us an opportunity as well as the confidence to go ahead and help,” she said.