Medical Students and Health Emergencies
One of the biggest health care stories of 2015/16 has been outbreak and spread of the Zika virus throughout the Americas. Cases of the disease were showing up in Florida by early August; and with this year’s Summer Olympics taking place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the concern is now that athletes could be infected and taking the disease home with them, giving Zika an even wider global reach.
So the timing is apt that the CPSO has begun reviewing its Physicians and Health Emergencies policy, and will be running an open consultation on the document throughout the fall. As a response to the 2003 SARS outbreak and the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, our policy was developed to reaffirm the profession’s commitment to the public during health emergencies. It discusses, among other things, the circumstances in which doctors may have to provide medical care outside their scope of practice, and it obligates physicians to be aware of relevant federal, provincial and local emergency plans, especially as they pertain to medical care.
But what about med students? If you’ve already received some medical training, you may feel compelled to put those skills to use during a major public health emergency. But what are your obligations? Where can you turn to for guidance?
About 10 years ago, the Canadian Federation of Medical Students (CFMS) released a publication called An Ounce of Prevention: Ensuring Canadian Medical Student Preparedness for Disaster & Emergency. It discusses the (strictly voluntary) mobilization of medical students during a health crisis, and provides some valuable examples of how medical students have been used as contingencies when health care resources were scarce during a crisis. As well, it details how emergencies could cause a significant disruption to your medical education. (For example, during the SARS crisis in 2003, student access to Toronto hospitals was suspended for the majority of the outbreak.)
Although the CPSO expects physicians to provide medical care during a health emergency, medical students are not obligated to participate. Students who choose to volunteer during health emergencies must remember that they are to provide care that is appropriate for their level of training and that controlled acts, as defined in section 27 of the Regulated Health Professions Act, are not undertaken without proper delegation from a licensed physician.
Other documents that may be useful to you include the article, Willingness to volunteer during an influenza pandemic: perspectives from students and staff at a large Canadian university, and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of PEI statement, Pandemic: Practising with Risk to Self.
We encourage all medical students in Ontario to review these publications as well as our policies on Health Emergencies and the Delegation of Controlled Acts. And as always, we welcome your feedback on the consultation to help us strengthen our position on the role Ontario doctors can play in a health emergency.
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