Contribution and dilemmas of Medical undergraduate students in combating disease outbreaks: COVID 19 and previous outbreaks

COVID 19 has brought several challenges for each individual, changing the world’s perception of health-care professionals. People are hailing health-care professionals as heroes, worthy of praise and gratitude. However, the pandemic has overburdened the health-care system. In this situation, the undergraduate medical students are being used as a crucial part of the health-care team in various ways. Involvement of medical undergraduates in situations of natural disaster is not new. In fact, a review of history of previous natural disasters reveals that this has been normal every time health systems have been overburdened. In the present situation of COVID 19, these students have a crucial role to play in helping frontline workers combat the crisis. Though the students would like to render their services, they are in a state of dilemma, as their roles are not defined clearly and their training to combat the pandemic is inadequate, as it was in previous outbreaks. This highlights a need to introduce module-based training for medical graduates to contribute effectively in combating future outbreaks.