Hundreds of medical students have volunteered to help Czech hospitals teeming with Covid-19 patients, struggling with one of the highest infection rates in the world.
Wrapped in full medical protective gear, hidden behind a visor and fitted with two pairs of rubber gloves, Tereza Zalesakova, 22, performs the blood sugar test in a patient on life support.
She then moves into another room in the intensive care unit of Prague General University Hospital to help feed an elderly man who keeps coughing and breathing with difficulty.
“I started working here at the beginning of November because there was a lack of auxiliary staff,” said this medical student at Charles University in Prague.
“If the nurses don’t need me, the doctors often let me do different medical procedures, which I could never have done as a student,” Tereza told AFP.
“It is an invaluable experience”, underlines the young woman who hopes to become a surgeon one day.
Czech hospitals have been close to their maximum reception capacities since last fall, when this EU member country, with 10.7 million inhabitants, experienced a peak in Covid-19 contaminations.
The country recorded the highest per capita daily death rate in Europe for several weeks in October and November, and the infection rate in recent days has been higher than in the United States.
The Czech Ministry of Health has estimated the number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 at more than 800,000 since the start of the epidemic in March, including 12,800 deaths.
This week, the country passed the threshold of 17,000 new contaminations, a record.
“Reception capacity is reaching its limits. The main reason is staff absences due to Covid-19 infections,” Deputy Health Minister Vladimir Cerny told reporters on Friday.
– “A lot of work” –
To meet the challenge, the government called on students as well as the military to help hospitals or nursing homes.
“The students do a lot of work and we are very grateful to them,” says Petra Havrlikova, nurse at the General University Hospital.
“They help us position patients, do their morning toilets, send samples to laboratories or disinfect rooms,” she told AFP.
“I think many of them have seen a patient here for the first time up close,” says Havrlikova.
Resting after three hours in the intensive care unit, medical student Karolina Nekolova, 22, prepares for a new tour by sharing a box of chocolate with nurses.
“The hardest part is dealing with the death of a patient. It’s sad and no one has prepared us for it,” she says.
– “Great experience” –
The two students, Tereza and Karolina, are both in their third year of a six-year medical course at Charles University, and both now count as part-time employees in the internal service.
They work up to ten 12-hour shifts per month, each comprising six hours in intensive care and six hours dedicated to other tasks.
“It’s a great experience for me. First, I help people and second, I gain experience for my future life as a doctor,” says Karolina Nekolova, who plans to become a pediatrician.
The two students believe that mixing university and work is not a problem and consider having the chance to be able to study “on the spot”, unlike other students forced into distance education because of health restrictions.
“Our faculty is very open. Now we are in examination period so it may be a little more difficult but I hope we will get there”, smiles Tereza Zalesakova.
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