{"id":111009,"date":"2020-03-17T15:52:03","date_gmt":"2020-03-17T14:52:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=111009"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:24:46","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:24:46","slug":"allow-medical-students-and-student-nurses-to-help-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2020\/03\/17\/allow-medical-students-and-student-nurses-to-help-out\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Allow medical students and student nurses to help out\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dutch doctors and nurses are working overtime due to the coronavirus pandemic. Nurses and doctors are asking that student nurses and medical students be allowed to lend a helping hand.<\/p>\n

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The Education Centre of Erasmus MC is quiet, but often chilly<\/span><\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>

With the rising numbers of people infected with the coronavirus, more and more people are being admitted to hospitals. Many medical students and nursing students are saying online that they would be happy to help out. One lecturer received one thousand replies to her LinkedIn call for \u2018more people on the work floor\u2019.<\/p>\n

Volunteering<\/h2>

For this reason, the Association of Nurses and Carers in the Netherlands (V&VN) has stated that student nurses should be allowed to lend a helping hand if they are about to graduate and that former nurses should be allowed to help out if their professional credentials have only just expired. \u201cSocial media are full of comments by people offering their services,\u201d says V&VN spokesman Jacek Magala. \u201cIt would be a terrible shame if we couldn\u2019t take them up on that offer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Is it ethical to ask students to join the fight against a potentially dangerous virus? \u201cWe\u2019re not sending representatives to universities of applied sciences to select candidates for \u2018compulsory volunteering\u2019,\u201d says Magala. \u201cBut if students actually volunteer, we\u2019d like to be able to use their services.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crash course<\/h2>

He emphasises that he isn\u2019t talking about students who have just attended their first lecture. \u201cWe\u2019re talking about advanced students who are about to graduate. And even so, they must be supervised properly or perhaps be asked to take a very brief crash course. The Health and Youth Inspectorate has yet to give the go-ahead, but we are fairly confident they will.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Netherlands Association of Universities of Applied Sciences is checking whether its member universities are indeed taking the initiative to allow their students to help out and if so, what kind of considerations they are taking into account. \u201cNeedless to say, the students\u2019 safety is paramount,\u201d says the Association\u2019s spokesperson, Eva Kloosterman.<\/p>\n

Flexible<\/h2>

For its part, the Royal Dutch Medical Association (KNMG) has argued that the rules governing the credentials of healthcare professionals should be temporarily relaxed. The Association would like to be able to draft in residents who are not yet fully qualified doctors, but who do have some hands-on experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cRelaxing rules may save lives in this emergency,\u201d says KNMG chair Ren\u00e9 H\u00e9man. He\u2019s in favour of letting medical students who are about to graduate provide non-complex care if they have recently obtained hands-on experience.<\/p>\n

Careful selection<\/h2>

Recent experience is important for nurses too. \u201cWe won\u2019t randomly draft in former nurses who last set foot inside a hospital twenty years ago,\u201d says nurses\u2019 association spokesperson Magala. \u201cBut someone who retired a year ago still has a lot of valuable knowledge and experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

This afternoon, an emergency meeting will be held at the Ministry of Health, where V&VN and KNMG will discuss the drafting-in of medical students, student nurses and former healthcare professionals.<\/p>\n

Child-minding service<\/h2>

In Groningen medical students are already contributing to the battle against coronavirus. They have set up a child-minding service for the children of parents who are working at the Groningen Academic Medical Centre (UMCG) or the Martini Hospital.<\/p>\n\n\t

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De redactie<\/h2>\n\t\t\n\t\t
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