Coronavirus: Macquarie Uni medical student Will Lin working on front line
After a call out in March, Will Lin, a third year medical student at Macquarie University, jumped at the chance to work at a COVID-19 clinic.
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Third year medical student Will Lin said he never thought he’d be living through a global health emergency let alone working on the front line.
“I definitely didn’t think our modern world would be going through a worldwide pandemic,” Will told The Northern District Times.
After a call out in March, the Macquarie University medical student said he jumped at the idea of working at a COVID-19 clinic.
Will, 24, from North Sydney, has been working at the WiSE Respiratory clinic in Macquarie Park three days a week for almost two months.
When he first told his parents he put his hand up in the fight against the pandemic, he said his dad had mixed emotions.
“He said good job, you’re helping out, then he was a bit concerned. He knew I was in the midst of the pandemic and was worried I’d catch the infection,” Will said.
The postgraduate medical student works four-hour shifts in either the morning from 8am or the afternoon shift from 1pm.
On a standard day, he arrives about 15 minutes before his shift before wearing his PPE (personal protective equipment) gear which includes a surgical gown, gloves and eye protection.
He then checks how many registered patients the clinic is expecting that shift and whether there are enough information sheets to give to them.
As a medical student volunteer, there are two different jobs he could be assigned; monitoring the flow of patients in the clinic and checking incoming patients as they arrive at the boom gate.
“At the boom gate we check patients are registered and direct them to go to the registered or unregistered zones then give them PPE masks and information of the clinic.
“The other job is flow control. There we are at the clinic building itself and direct patients to either the doctor's room or nurse assessor rooms.”
Will said monitoring the patient flow was important to ensure there were not too many people coming in for swabs at the one time.
Over the past few weeks he said they’ve seen a lot more patients come to the clinic for testing after NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian called for increased testing to anyone who had symptoms.
Now, the clinic tests about 90 patients a day, he said.
When Will’s not at the clinic he is studying his university coursework from home and said it’s been challenging assessing patients in online simulations.
“Instead of meeting patients we are doing simulations on Zoom. Instead of looking at a patient with your own eyes you're trying to look at someone sometimes via crappy internet,” Will said.
“It’s a whole lot different doing all learning online and with all placements off.”
If it hadn’t been for the pandemic, Will would’ve been on placement in the paediatric department at the Royal North Shore Hospital.
While his placement has been delayed until June, he said he’s fortunate to have had the opportunity to volunteer at the Macquarie Park clinic during a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic.
“I feel like I’m actually part of the health care team and health care response to Covid and it’s rewarding,” Will said.
The 24-year-old said he aspires to work as a doctor in a CareFlight helicopter.
“My long term goal is to be in retrieval emergency medicine like in a CareFlight helicopter – going on to car crash scenes and stabilising the patients,” he said.
Will is one of 15 Macquarie University’s Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences students volunteering at the Macquarie Park clinic.
“We are very proud of our staff and students who have volunteered to be part of this initiative in contributing to the Australian healthcare system’s collective response to the COVID-19 global pandemic,” MQ Health strategy and planning director Natalie Sequeira said.
“For these students this is an exceptional career learning opportunity to be able to contribute on the front line of a global health emergency.”
It comes after NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard announced final year medical students will take on new roles in hospitals across the state under a $12.7 million initiative to “boost the medical workforce” against COVID-19.
Minister Hazzard said the state government was working with universities to identify about 200 final year medical students who would be on standby to work in non-COVID hospital wards to free up existing staff to care for COVID-19 cases if required.
“Our fantastic doctors and nurses in NSW overcome enormous challenges every day but we’re taking extra steps to ensure our medical workforce is ready for anything the pandemic hits us with,” Mr Hazzard told reporters on Saturday.
“Any spike in COVID-19 cases would put pressure on our hospital system so we’ve partnered with universities to have recruits on standby to support our hospital medical staff if the need arises.
Under supervision in a medical team, the final year medical students would be deployed to non-COVID wards in hospitals across the state.