Systematic review of medical student willingness to volunteer and preparedness for pandemics and disasters

Abstract

ObjectiveThis systematic review aimed to estimate the willingness of students to volunteer during a disaster, and how well-prepared medical students are for volunteering by assessing their knowledge and medical school curriculum of disaster and pandemic medicine.ResultsA total of 37 studies met inclusion criteria including 11 168 medical students and 91 medical schools. 24 studies evaluated knowledge (64.9%), 16 evaluated volunteering (43.2%) and 5 evaluated medical school curricula (13.5%). Weighted mean willingness to volunteer during a disaster was 68.4% (SD=21.7%, range=26.7%–87.8%, n=2911), and there was a significant difference between those planning to volunteer and those who actually volunteered (p<0.0001). We identified a number of modifiable barriers which may contribute to this heterogeneity. Overall, knowledge of disasters was poor with a weighted mean of 48.9% (SD=15.1%, range=37.1%–87.0%, n=2985). 36.8% of 76 medical schools curricula included teaching on disasters. However, students only received minimal teaching (2–6 hours).ConclusionsThis study demonstrates that there is a large number of students who are willing to volunteer during pandemics. However, they are unlikely to be prepared for these roles as overall knowledge is poor, and this is likely due to minimal teaching on disasters at medical school. During the current COVID-19 pandemic and in future disasters, medical students may be required to volunteer as auxiliary staff. There is a need to develop infrastructure to facilitate this process as well as providing education and training to ensure students are adequately prepared to perform these roles safely.

Health professional student’s volunteering activities during the COVID-19 pandemic: A systematic literature review

“…Furthermore, during the COVID-19 pandemic, we evaluated the determining factors, types of activities, and advantages of volunteering (which was exclusively done in this systematic review). Moreover, this study employed a larger population of health professional students (medical and other healthcare professions) than previous research (only inclusive of medical students) ( 70 ).…”

'I don't feel like I'm learning how to be a doctor': early insights regarding the impact of Covid-19 on UK medical student professional identity

“…The STROBE guideline for crosssectional studies was followed (STROBE Initiative, 2007). Initially, we performed a systematic review of the motivations for, and barriers to, healthcare volunteering during disasters (Ashcroft et al, 2020;Byrne, Ashcroft, Alexander, et al, 2021). Based on our interpretation of the original studies reviewed, MHVB and JA developed an original survey with a focus on the themes outlined in the systematic review.…”

“…We selected these five qualitative questions as the basis for our analysis as the quantitative data was analysed and presented elsewhere (Byrne, Ashcroft, Wan, et al, 2021), and on review of the data generated through these qualitative questions we felt that the themes generated were robust enough to sit in their own piece of work rather than alongside the not-insignificant volume of data generated by the quantitative section of the survey. Whilst the survey itself captured both quantitative and qualitative data, this paper addresses only the qualitative aspect of the work.…”

“…Whilst the survey itself captured both quantitative and qualitative data, this paper addresses only the qualitative aspect of the work. This paper has previously been published as a preprint (Byrne, Ashcroft, Wan, et al, 2021).…”

Medical Students Are Essential to Nonclinical Medical Education Research During COVID-19

“…Our projects represent over 2,000 experiences of student clinical assistance during the pandemic, involving more than 40 student collaborators across the United Kingdom. Students have gained experience performing literature reviews, 3 focus groups, surveys, 4 qualitative and quantitative data analysis, and writing. 5 , 6 Our findings have been presented at the Association for Medical Education in Europe conference and Association for the Study of Medical Education conference in the Research Paper Award session.…”