Response to: "Medical Student Perspectives on Their Role as Emerging Physicians During the COVID-19 Pandemic".

Abstract

We present a Letter to the Editor in response to the article by Chinsky et al. titled “Medical Student Perspectives on Their Role as Emerging Physicians During the COVID-19 Pandemic.” The authors highlighted that a greater proportion of preclinical students felt more obligated to volunteer in the context of healthcare staff shortages, compared to clinical students. As final year medical students, we propose additional reasons based on our personal experiences that may contribute to clinical students feeling less inclined to volunteer during the pandemic. Specifically, we believe that the priorities of clinical students may affect their willingness to volunteer given the challenge of balancing private study and clinical placement. Furthermore, we believe that the psychological difficulties that often accompany clinical placement may affect clinical students’ views on volunteering. We also briefly outline solutions that may solve these issues. Ultimately, positive attitudes in students need to be sustained throughout the medical degree so that the future generation of doctors is better equipped to face a future crisis and beyond.