@article{ref1,
title="Preparing medical students for disaster response [editorial]",
journal="Military medicine",
year="2021",
author="Wightman, John M.",
volume="ePub",
number="ePub",
pages="ePub-ePub",
abstract="In this month's issue of Military Medicine, Winakor, Janatpour, and West have commented on the ill-defined roles of medical students in disaster response. The authors ask how medical students can effectively serve in disaster-relief efforts generally and the ongoing coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic specifically. They suggest that medical students should be allowed to volunteer after appropriate education and pre-deployment training.   Frustrating aspiring physicians' desires to contribute to a resource-limited response with whatever skills they may possess has the potential for detrimental mental-health effects. On the other hand, not all medical students will want to participate in disaster response, while others should not for a variety of reasons. Decisions must be personalized and decision-making shared between the individual, the institution, and the affected community. Benefits and risks must be assessed by each.   For the individual, a commentary published in the Wisconsin Medical Journal at the beginning of the pandemic well outlined some essential considerations: &quot;Fundamentally, a particular student's response to a 'call to duty' is a combination of their sense of professional obligation, moral agency, ability to tolerate moral ambiguity, level of emotional resilience, and maturity of their professional identity.&quot;1 These would apply to any emergency or disaster response...<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0026-4075",
doi="10.1093/milmed/usab182",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/milmed/usab182"
}