Higher Education, Science & Technology Minister Blade Nzimande has granted final-year medical students permission to travel to university campuses and training sites to complete their studies, says a Cape Argus report. Nzimande has published new regulations to this effect.
“The purpose of the directions is to permit the travel of final-year medical students to and from their place of residence to university campuses and training sites to allow for their academic and clinical work to continue during this period,” the regulations read.
The Minister added that all other programmes such as nursing, dental, veterinary sciences and others will be phased in.
Hundreds of medical students from different years of study have organised themselves to volunteer in different ways at Tygerberg Hospital in Cape Town during the COVID-19 outbreak, reports Daily Maverick. So far, their role has been mostly non-clinical and voluntary. Many have said that stepping out of the classroom and into the hospital has been a wake-up call – and a call to further action – in one of the country’s epicentres of the outbreak.
The report says We Fight Back COVID began organically. Since before the lockdown, Stellenbosch University students have been assisting Tygerberg hospital at its call centre, screening site and data capture centre. Many wanted to know what they could do from home, explains the co-ordinator of the initiative, Luné Smith.
Doctors told students where and when they needed extra hands, and so five loose groups of volunteers started to take shape. Six weeks ago, they decided to join forces to share resources and goals under the banner of We Fight Back COVID.
Now, the project has five initiatives manned by about 200 students. They are mentored by university and hospital staff to make sure their approaches are evidence-based and safe.
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[link url="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-05-25-a-call-to-action-medical-students-volunteer-to-step-out-of-the-the-classroom-into-the-coronavirus-pandemic/"]Full Daily Maverick report[/link]