Dataset Information

Rapid Mobilization of Medical Students to Provide Health Care Workers With Emergency Childcare During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

ABSTRACT:

Problem

In March 2020, the novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic spread rapidly within the United States and began overwhelming the health care system. To conserve personal protective equipment, reduce the spread of the virus, and keep student learners safe, leaders of medical schools across the country made the difficult decision to suspend in-person clinical experiences. As medical students were sent home and hospital systems ramped up their response to the virus, many essential health care workers (HCWs) faced an immediate challenge. As "nonessential" services such as schools and daycare centers abruptly closed, HCWs serving on the frontlines in inpatient settings needed a way to both fight the pandemic and care for their children.

Approach

Medical students at Oregon Health & Science University were able to rapidly OR organize to provide childcare for essential HCWs. For roughly 8 weeks following the state of emergency (March 13 through May 15, 2020), students used Twitter and emerging technology to match families in need of childcare with a trainee volunteer.

Outcomes

By May 15th, the service had successfully fulfilled 181 of the 202 requests for childcare (90%) over the course of 8 weeks. Of the 181 completed childcare requests, 172 (95%) were fulfilled by an individual (1:1 volunteer-to-household pairing), and 9 (5%) were fulfilled by 2 or more volunteers.

Next steps

The trainees who provided childcare will apply the skills learned (e.g., clear communication, grassroots organizing, triaging, leveraging new technology) to patient care. Broader applications for this system include organizing volunteers to conduct contract tracing or to provide public health information in languages other than English. Future research includes examining the effect of the service on the productivity, morale, and mental health of both those who provided and received childcare.

SUBMITTER: Lane ECA

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8378428 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Rapid Mobilization of Medical Students to Provide Health Care Workers With Emergency Childcare During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Lane Emily C A ECA Tran Audrey A AA Graulty Christian J CJ Bumsted Tracy T

Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges 20210901 9

<h4>Problem</h4>In March 2020, the novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic spread rapidly within the United States and began overwhelming the health care system. To conserve personal protective equipment, reduce the spread of the virus, and keep student learners safe, leaders of medical schools across the country made the difficult decision to suspend in-person clinical experiences. As medical students were sent home and hospital systems ramped up their response to the virus, many essential h ...[more]

PMID: 33788791

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Project description:BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic added new and great uncertainty to the typical approach to applying into emergency medicine (EM) for medical students. There are little data on students' lived experience of applying during this time period. We performed a multi-institutional survey of EM-bound students' experiences with preparing to apply into EM during the pandemic.MethodsThis was a cross-sectional survey design study of fourth-year students preparing to apply into EM during the 2020-2021 academic year. All self-identified EM-bound students at four participating institutions were recruited by email in June 2020 to participate in a 13-item, 5-point Likert-scale survey. Univariate descriptive statistics, response rate, and nonresponse bias were calculated.ResultsSixty-seven of 125 eligible students responded for an overall response rate of 53.6%. Nonresponse bias for specific survey items ranged from 0.01 to 0.12. Students rated the importance of securing an EM rotation at their home institution the highest of any item (mean ± SD = 4.81 ± 0.68). Students indicated higher satisfaction with advice from their department of EM (mean ± SD = 4.28 ± 0.75) than from their school of medicine (mean ± SD = 3.52 ± 0.89). Students indicated higher confidence in their home EM rotations' ability to assure adequate personal protective equipment (PPE; mean ± SD = 3.91 ± 0.83) than an away rotation (mean ± SD = 2.82, 1.09). Students reported feeling between moderately and quite stressed about applying into EM this year (mean ± SD = 3.49 ± 1.01), but reported the financial stress the lowest of any item (mean ± SD = 1.46 ± 0.84). Students rated it highly important that away rotations prioritize students from institutions without an EM residency (mean ± SD = 4.51 ± 0.93).ConclusionMedical students applying into EM during the COVID-19 pandemic felt confident in their EM advisors' recommendations and their home institution's PPE provision. Students with EM residency programs at their schools recognized the importance of away rotations being prioritized for students from schools without EM residency programs. Strong EM advising is important to students.

Project description:ImportanceChildcare stress (CCS) is high during the COVID-19 pandemic because of remote learning and fear of illness transmission in health care workers (HCWs). Associations between CCS and burnout, intent to reduce (ITR) hours, and intent to leave (ITL) are not known.ObjectiveTo determine associations between CCS, anxiety and depression, burnout, ITR in 1 year, and ITL in 2 years.Design, setting, and participantsThis survey study, Coping with COVID, a brief work-life and wellness survey of US HCWs, was conducted between April and December 2020, assessing CCS, burnout, anxiety, depression, workload, and work intentions. The survey was distributed to clinicians and staff in participating health care organizations with more than 100 physicians. Data were analyzed from October 2021 to May 2022.Main outcomes and measuresThe survey asked, "due to…COVID-19, I am experiencing concerns about childcare," and the presence of CCS was considered as a score of 3 or 4 on a scale from 1, not at all, to 4, a great extent. The survey also asked about fear of exposure or transmission, anxiety, depression, workload, and single-item measures of burnout, ITR, and ITL.ResultsIn 208 organizations, 58 408 HCWs (15 766 physicians [26.9%], 11 409 nurses [19.5%], 39 218 women [67.1%], and 33 817 White participants [57.9%]) responded with a median organizational response rate of 32%. CCS was present in 21% (12 197 respondents) of HCWs. CCS was more frequent among racial and ethnic minority individuals and those not identifying race or ethnicity vs White respondents (5028 respondents [25.2%] vs 6356 respondents [18.8%]; P < .001; proportional difference, -7.1; 95% CI, -7.8 to -6.3) and among women vs men (8281 respondents [21.1%] vs 2573 respondents [17.9%]; odds ratio [OR], 1.22; 95% CI, 1.17 to 1.29). Those with CCS had 115% greater odds of anxiety or depression (OR, 2.15; 95% CI, 2.04-2.26; P < .001), and 80% greater odds of burnout (OR, 1.80; 95% CI, 1.70-1.90; P < .001) vs indidivuals without CCS. High CCS was associated with 91% greater odds of ITR (OR, 1.91; 95% CI, 1.76 to 2.08; P < .001) and 28% greater odds of ITL (OR, 1.28; 95% CI, 1.17 to 1.40; P < .001).Conclusions and relevanceIn this survey study, CCS was disproportionately described across different subgroups of HCWs and was associated with anxiety, depression, burnout, ITR, and ITL. Addressing CCS may improve HCWs' quality of life and HCW retention and work participation.

Dataset Information

Rapid Mobilization of Medical Students to Provide Health Care Workers With Emergency Childcare During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Problem

Approach

Outcomes

Next steps

Publications

Rapid Mobilization of Medical Students to Provide Health Care Workers With Emergency Childcare During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Similar Datasets

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