Thrown in at the deep end: A conversation with the class of COVID
“We were soldiers being sent over the trenches into the firing line” On the 23rd March 2020, PM Boris Johnson announced a nationwide lockdown in response to the Covid-19 crisis. Less than 2 weeks later, on the 3rd April 200 final year Bristol medical students graduated early to work in the UK’s hospitals. “We were soldiers being sent over the trenches into the firing line”, one told me, fresh from 3 months of work as an interim foundation doctor. Bristol was one of the first medical schools in the country to fast-track the qualification of its ready-made and raring-to-go final year students, who signed up in great numbers. Interim foundation doctors could choose to work in their university town, home town or the trust they’d be joining as junior doctors, and one told me it was heartening that so many Bristol graduates chose to stay in the South West area and work with their medical school mates. As final year students returned to their last placements in Bristol in January 2020, having sat their finals the previous November, the emergence of CoVid-19 in China was nothing more than a distant news story; at best, an interesting point of research, at worst, the butt of a joke. Over the next few months, the wave that crested in Wuhan would rush towards the shores of Europe and break catastrophically across the world. For these early graduators, it was when certain students were recommended to change elective plans that the severity of the virus hit home. At first it was “some of the far-off places… Philippines, China [but] over the week, more countries [were] added to the list of where the uni [was] banning us from going”. Longawaited and anticipated elective plans were “dropping like flies”. Finally, on the 5th March an email was sent out: all electives were cancelled. “Pretty soon after that…[there were] rumours of us graduating early”. The last two weeks of placement were cancelled, and final year medical students, along with most of the student body, found themselves back in their family homes. The overwhelming feeling, I was told, was a keenness to get out and help. “It felt…pointless just sitting at home doing nothing when we could start work as an interim foundation doctor”. But it took some time to get to that stage – portfolios needed to be completed and pulled together, exam passes checked, support forms filled out for health and wellbeing. The ex-students I spoke to praised the tireless work of Andrew Blythe, head of year, who “carried all of us… got us all “doctorready””. “You didn’t really know what the timescale was going to be…[you were] always waiting for that email: you have to be back now, you’re starting working”. Almost a month later, provisional GMC registration received and Zoom graduation ceremony completed, they were ready to go. Leo, one foundation doctor I spoke to, although excited to start working, admitted to the apprehension associated with entering the medical profession during a pandemic. He described “an overwhelming sense of danger: we didn’t know how dangerous COVID was or wasn’t going to be, we didn’t know how bad things were going to get, we didn’t know what the PPE situation was”.
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