final year grad students are feeling
I'm a final-year student and yep it's bloody stressful
some of us are placed in rural centres for our six-week GP attachment and the next cycle starts on Monday 30th. We got send an email on Tuesday 24th morning that we are to get to our rural centres before Wednesday midnight to avoid lockdown. This means packing up our life and going to a rural centre where we might not have support? + sorting out emergency accommodation. Motel owners have rejected a lot of us as we are deemed high risk and so we can't even find proper acco (despite the MPD telling us "no tourists, so motels will be available!!")
All our electives were cancelled. Some of us were only on Day 1 of our elective in ANOTHER COUNTRY before we were emailed to immediately come back. Obviously, this is now seen as a good idea as we would otherwise have been trapped if we were not recalled. At the time though - incredibly stressful, ++ uncertainty and very poor communication from the uni.
Furthermore - we are still to go into hospital. We were sent letters last night that we are supposed to show anyone that stops us on the street. It's a letter from Andy Wearn that says that we are "essential workers in the COVID-19 reponse" ... which is scary. Some of us are immunocompromised, many have elderly / sick / immunocompromised family and we are scared of bringing it home. I know "this" (as in medicine) is what we signed up for, but trying to protect ourselves and our families from an invisible agent is bloody scary.
The MPD has also told us that we are forbidden from seeing any confirmed, probable or suspected COVID patients to protect us as students. However, there are so many ways in which we are NOT protected. My friend went in to see a patient on ED and at the end of the consult, the patient mentioned they recently had URTI symptoms. Hospital staff aren't really on board with this either. Another friend was just told to "stand at the back of the room" for a patient with URTI symptoms. It's this shit that the MPD can't protect us from.
there's also a LOT of talk from one doctor's association (the RDA) about how TIs might be drafted into the workforce before the graduation. As far a I know, the University is NOT allowing this at all, but the RDA is sharing around potential contracts they will be negotiating with the DHB. The prospect of joining the workforce before completing the important final year (where you prepare to join the workforce) is terrifying.