Providing support in a pandemic: A medical student telehealth service for ambulatory patients with COVID-19.

During the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, when health systems were overwhelmed with surging hospitalizations and a novel virus, many ambulatory patients diagnosed with COVID-19 lacked guidance and support as they convalesced at home. This case report offers insight into the implementation of a telehealth service utilizing third- and fourth-year medical students to provide follow-up to ambulatory patients diagnosed with COVID-19. The service was evaluated using medical student surveys and retrospective chart review to assess the clinical and social needs of patients during the spring of 2020. Students assessed symptoms for 416 patients with COVID-19 from April 8 to May 20 and provided clinical information and resources. Eighteen percent of these patients sought higher levels of medical care, in part from student referrals. Three key implementation lessons from this experience that may be relevant for others include: 1) Vulnerable patient populations face unique stressors exacerbated by the pandemic and may benefit from intensive follow-up after COVID-19 diagnosis to address both medical and social needs; 2) Medical students can play value-added roles in providing patient education to prevent the spread of COVID-19, assisting patients with escalating care or resource connection, and providing emotional support to those who have lost loved ones; 3) Continuous re-assessment of the intervention was important to address evolving patient needs during the COVID-19 outbreak. Future work should focus on identifying high-risk patient populations and tailoring follow-up interventions to meet the unique needs of these patient populations.

Learning at a social distance: A medical student telehealth service for COVID-19 patients.

This article was migrated. The article was marked as recommended. COVID-19 has disrupted traditional forms of clinical practice in both inpatient and outpatient settings. This novel, potentially-fatal infection proliferated to such a degree that many patients with mild disease had to engage in self-care at home. This disruption to clinical services has also upended in-person clerkship education across the country, leading to sustained periods of student furloughing. We developed a telehealth service-learning opportunity for COVID-19 patients who were advised to self-care in their homes. The service was staffed by medical students in their clinical training years, providing triage advice to patients, their families, and co-habitants until their symptoms improved. Callers set patient education around red flag symptoms as their first priority, but also offered counsel on home infection control and self-isolation strategies, composed work letters, offered resources regarding home management issues such as food and sanitation, and attended to the mental health needs of the patients and their families. An attending was on-call daily to assist and educate students about issues relating to clinical decision-making and the social determinants of health. A survey assessed medical students' opinions on the service. Student respondents found the service valuable, with 100% agreeing or strongly agreeing that the service was worth their time and important. Respondents reported learning important telehealth skills such as triage and patient education. Overwhelmingly, students found emotional connections with patients to be the most meaningful aspects of the service. Our telehealth service allowed students to learn from patients in a longitudinal manner, while remaining safely away from clinical settings. This service may prove a useful model for others in the case of another outbreak, particularly when medical students are furloughed. We hope to develop more clinical experiences in telehealth for medical students moving forward.