The growing outbreak of COVID-19 leads to a very high demand for medical personnel all over Indonesia, while almost every medical clerical activities and medical student clinics are being suspended due to the fear of affecting students with the growing outbreak. This statement was delivered by Prof. Dr. Dr. dr. Eka J. Wahjoepramono, Sp.BS., Ph.D. ? Dean of Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences UPH, regarding the current condition in medical education.

UPH Faculty of Medicine (FK UPH) responds to this condition by considering this moment as an opportunity for them to give clinical clerkship students some valuable lessons and an opportunity to get a hands-on experience in the field where they?re called for. Through the COVID-19 volunteer program, the Dean of UPH Faculty of Medicine opens an opportunity for Profession Program of Medicine students (who are in clinical clerkship period) to participate as COVID-19 volunteers in Siloam Hospitals along with the alumni of UPH Faculty of Medicine who have completed their clinical clerkship and National Competency Examination for Indonesian Health Professionals (UKMPPD).

According to Beverley Wonsono, BA., MA., Director of the Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences UPH, clinical clerkship students and alumni have their respective responsibilities. Clinical clerkship students are assigned to help in Siloam Public Hospitals and other branches of Siloam Hospitals, moreover, they will not be assigned to tend for COVID-19 patients. Whereas, alumni are specifically assigned to tend for COVID-19 patients in Siloam Hospitals.

Right now, these volunteers have started working in the hospital. Previously, for about a week, volunteers are given a major briefing regarding the procedure of handling COVID-19 patients according to Siloam Hospitals standard. The briefing that was given to all UPH Faculty of Medicine volunteers was very detailed and for safety measures, all volunteers are provided with Self-Protective Equipment (or APD). Though still in training, these volunteers will surely obtain great lessons and amazing experiences compared to the normal registrar. Therefore, Prof. Eka thinks that this opportunity is very rare, especially for clinical clerkship students of FK UPH.

?For this occasion, we will train them to treat COVID-19 patients. Some of them include intubation training and ventilator installation and adjustment, especially for patients in critical condition. These procedures should be done under the supervision of another senior doctor. We also train them to do cardiopulmonary resuscitation, an emergency procedure that acts as an effort to restore spontaneous blood circulation and breathing in a person who is in cardiac arrest. Normally, in a clinical registrar, these alumni should have done an intubation procedure, but in this briefing, we want to ensure that all volunteers are ready to become the front line workers,? Prof. Eka explained.

Within several days of the training, volunteers also went through some simulations to obtain the real experience. The Deang of UPH Faculty of Medicine hopes that through this opportunity, more alumni and clinical clerkship students can join forces and work together as volunteers, to help health care personnel. Aside from helping their colleagues, this volunteer program also became a valuable opportunity for young doctors to learn about this pandemic.

UPH keep taking measures to support the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 in accordance with students? respective discipline and through all acts of solidarity held by the Student Organization as a part of our Community Service (Pengabdian Kepada Masyarakat or PKM) and our active participation in helping the government to fight against this COVID-19 pandemic.

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