Island Medical Program students stepping up in response to COVID-19

Over 60 Island Medical Program students are participating as volunteers in a student-led initiative to serve the community in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. They are providing a number of key services in our community, including:

• Contactless grocery delivery to seniors
• Assisting GPs with wellness phone checks with vulnerable patients
• Helping an inner-city response team respond to support our homeless population
• Childcare and pet care for front line workers
• Collecting PPE donations for Island Health
• Volunteering with UVic’s 3D printing of face shields for front line workers

Madelaine Beckett (Class of 2021) began working with Jesse Spooner and Amy Kim (Class of 2020) to coordinate the outpouring of requests from students for opportunities to get involved supporting the community. Their early work included childcare, pet care and running errands for front line healthcare workers. Thanks to their early efforts, the initiative quickly expanded as new ideas came on board. Max Moor-Smith (Class of 2020) joined to lead an initiative to collect personal protective equipment and support the 3D printing project at UVic.

Emily Lerhe and Caroline Spaner (Class of 2022) are leading a project called Bag Half Full to provide grocery delivery to seniors. There are now about 20 volunteers doing the shopping and deliveries. This was modeled on a project started at the University of Alberta, which has now expanded to other campuses across Canada.

Madelaine Beckett and Jesse Spooner and two others from the Class of 2021 (Emma Woo and Rita Wakelin) have been working to provide administrative support to the Victoria Inner City COVID-19 Response Team, a physician led group working to address the dual crisis of homelessness and COVID-19. In addition to the administrative work, they have recruited volunteers for assembling donated cell phones with SIM cards and software to support healthcare outreach to this vulnerable community.

Other students have returned to work in their pre-medical school careers as paramedics and nurses. Many students are engaged in research projects dealing with COVID-19.

We are fortunate and grateful for the tremendous efforts of the Island Medical Program students. Thank you for stepping up so quickly to respond to the needs of the community. You have made a huge difference in the lives of so many people.

The Island Medical Program delivers the UBC MD program in collaboration with UVic and Island Health. Based on UVic campus and at affiliated healthcare centres across Vancouver Island, the program was created in 2004 to help address regional shortages of physicians, particularly in remote, rural and indigenous communities.

Both CHEK TV and the Oak Bay News have covered the remarkable, and selfless, contributions of these young medical-professionals-in-training.