Oxford University Medical Students – staff testing team by ZOE DE TOLEDO, LIAM PECK and THOMAS RITTER On behalf of the Oxford University Medical Students staff testing team In March 2020, Oxford University medical students received word that studies would be put on hold whilst OUH began to battle COVID-19. At first we were stuck at home, frustrated at not being able to support the NHS when it needed help the most, however soon requests for volunteers started to arrive. Students were deployed to help with a variety of activities, from triaging Emergency Department patients to acting as donning and doffing buddies in the Intensive Care Unit. In late April, 19 students ventured ‘up the hill’ to the John Radcliffe Hospital for what was described by Dr Lumley as a ‘COVID Phlebotomy Project’. Little did we know that this would evolve into what is now the extensive COVID-19 staff testing programme at OUH. Those first days were a novel experience for everyone, requiring all our powers of innovation and creativity. The service has expanded and continues to adapt as the landscape around us changes. In July, our medical studies resumed, however we were given the opportunity to keep working alongside our studies. We now have a team of over 200, coming from a wide array of disciplines, and it has been rewarding and fulfilling in many ways. Selfishly, it has provided relief from total lockdown, but more so it has been a welcome opportunity to support our hospitals and staff in a way that is rarely possible for us as students.
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It is easy to feel siloed from the main hospital, with a lack of a permanent role to play in the rotation-based course structure. However, this crisis has afforded us an opportunity to provide a tangible service. Not only have we had the chance to hone our clinical skills at an unprecedented rate (though one does still occasionally miss the vein…) but also being responsible for the administrative side of outpatient clinics offers future doctors a humbling insight into the requirements needed for the smooth provision of services. It has been a pleasure to assist and we hope to have provided comfort to all those staff tested so far. We have learned from the very best, in particular the indefatigable Hepatology and Occupational Health teams. Some of the most rewarding experiences have come from learning new skills from our nursing colleagues, and then having the chance to pass on these skills to new waves of students. Despite the huge interruptions to our education, we are sure that this experience with the COVID staff testing team will make us better doctors. Those first days may have been wildly different to the efficient well-oiled machine that runs now but the aim has always been the same – to test and support asymptomatic staff.