A Model for Recognition, Remembrance and Reflection Sessions for Medical Students Working during the Covid-19 Global Pandemic

During the Covid-19 pandemic, Warwick Medical Students had their training paused and were offered roles in the National Health Service (NHS). Fourth year students worked in paid assistantship roles, while other years worked as Health Care Support workers (HCSW) or in previously qualified professions. Other medical schools have previously employed students in an HCSW role before, with much success (Davison and Lindqvist, 2019). However, during the pandemic, students experienced more death of patients than expected for their level of training. Even before the pandemic, medical students experienced a higher rate of depression and anxiety, while feeling more stigmatised than the general public (Schwenk et al., 2010). Therefore, Recognition, Remembrance and Reflection sessions were established to praise the work of the medical students, as well as provide a platform for supporting wellbeing. The format of the sessions involved talks from senior staff at the medical school, the hospital chaplain, and staff who worked alongside the students. Additionally, the sessions involved reflection tasks. A 5-point Likert Scale questionnaire has been devised to assess students’ experience of working during the pandemic and gain their feedback from the event. The sessions are taking place on Thursday 3rd and Friday 4th September so the data will be collected then and will be ready to present for the INSPIRE conference.