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Abstract
BackgroundHealthcare workers have reported increased anxiety while working in hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the role of healthcare students in a health crisis has been discussed among clinicians and researchers. The simultaneous international shortage of personal protection equipment (PPE) during the first wave of the pandemic potentially exposed healthcare workers and students to the virus during their work and clinical training. Our aim was therefore to evaluate the extent to which paramedic students in Oslo, Norway, were exposed to the SARS-CoV-2 virus and were involved in voluntary and/or paid healthcare-related work. An evaluation was also made of the students’ COVID-19-related symptoms and of their health-related quality of life (HRQoL) during the first wave of the pandemic.MethodsParamedic students (n = 155) at Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway, were invited to complete an online survey five months after the first cases of COVID-19 were detected. The university was situated in the epicenter of the pandemic in Norway. The responses were analyzed using descriptive statistics, independent sample t-tests, and linear regression analysis.ResultsOf the 109 respondents (70.3%), 40 worked in patient-related healthcare work. Of those, seven (17.5%) students experienced insufficient supplies of PPE, six (15.0%) participated in aerosol-generating procedures without adequate PPE, and nine (22.5%) experienced insufficient time to don PPE. Seventy-five (70.1%) students experienced no COVID-19-related symptoms, and no students tested positive for COVID-19. HRQoL was scored 0.92 (sd 0.12), which was significantly higher than for the general population before the pandemic (p = 0.002). Students continued with their education and participated in a variety of pandemic-related emergency tasks during the first wave of the pandemic.ConclusionsParamedic students were valuable contributors to the national pandemic response. Despite potential exposure to SARS-CoV-2 in unpredictable emergency settings with limited supplies of personal protection equipment, no students tested positive for COVID-19. Their health-related quality of life remained high. Students’ participation and utilization in similar health crises should be considered in future health crises.
Highlights
The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), causing the disease known as Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), rapidly spread worldwide in the first months of 2020, and was declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11, 2020
Of the 156 students enrolled in the bachelor program in paramedic science at Oslo Metropolitan University (OsloMet), 109 students participated in this study, which constitutes a response rate of
Our results show that six students (15.0%) participated in Aerosol generating procedures (AGP) without adequate protection equipment (PPE) while performing patient-related healthcare work, and three students (15%) participated in AGPs without adequate PPE while in study-related clinical placements in the ambulance service
Summary
The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), causing the disease known as Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), rapidly spread worldwide in the first months of 2020, and was declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11, 2020. At this time, Norway had the seventh-highest confirmed rates of infection worldwide, at 110 cases per million inhabitants [1]. There were national [2, 3] and international [4] shortages of personal protection equipment (PPE), which constituted a risk for healthcare workers of catching COVID-19 while performing their work [3]. An evaluation was made of the students’ COVID-19-related symptoms and of their health-related quality of life (HRQoL) during the first wave of the pandemic
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