Willingness of Medical Undergraduates to Work as Volunteers for anti-epidemic of COVID-19: Reflections on Medical Education in the post-epidemic era of China (preprint)

ABSTRACT

Objective: To identify the willingness of medical undergraduates to work as volunteers for fighting COVID-19 and effect factors of willingness to volunteer. Methods: A cross-sectional online questionnaire survey which consisted of three sections with 26 items was conducted. The primary outcome was the willingness to volunteer. Descriptive analysis was used for the results of characteristics, a univariant analysis was performed by chi-square test and a multivariate analysis was performed by multivariate logistic regression. Results: A total of 5499 questionnaires were issued and 5379 effective questionnaires were finally recovered. There were 1797 males (33.4%) and 3582 females (66.6%), with an average age of 20±1.5 years old. 3553(66.1%) students wanted to volunteer. Male was associated with less adjusted OR (0.68, 0.56 to 0.81) for willingness. The undergraduates in school of public health was most (3.81, 2.26 to 6.40) willing to work. The undergraduates who had often participated in voluntary activities but not regularly was 3.23(2.03-5.16) times more willing than those that never participate. Conclusion: It suggested that medical educators should emphasize voluntary activities in undergraduate medical education and continue to insistence of medical humanities and public health education to improve the social responsibility and professional identity of medical undergraduates.