100 signatures reached
To: VCU Health Senior Leadership
Support Equitable Vaccination & Education for VCU Medical Students
VCU Health has removed all health science students, including medical students, from the clinical environment due to increased COVID infection rates among staff. Medical students will be required to receive the vaccine & develop immunity before returning to the hospital. Despite the vaccine being administered to all tiers of the hospital system, including remote workers, there is currently no plan or timeline for the vaccination of medical students. This does not follow the national standard set by other institutions.
We are asking for a plan that ensures prompt prioritization for vaccination of all clinical medical students and a strategy to allow prompt resumption of our clinical education.
Read the complete letter of student requests here: https://anonymousfiles.io/0zR3Wocr/
Why is this important?
Medical institutions across the country have successfully made plans to vaccinate and keep their medical students in the clinical environment. UVA has vaccinated clinical medical students and is now moving on to vaccinate their 1st and 2nd year preclinical students. VCU still doesn’t have an answer for when our clinical students may be vaccinated and there is no explanation for why this is not possible. The return to the clinical environment is contingent on becoming vaccinated, however, it seems that this is not currently a priority.
The clinical education of medical students nationwide has already been disrupted due to removal from clinical activities during the summer. Currently it is unprecedented for an academic institution such as VCU to remove students for another 60-90 days. Decreased clinical time will impede education and set students back in their readiness for residency compared to peers at other institutions. While we are medical students now we will be the residents tasked with treating these patients in less than 1-2 years. These changes also ignore the value that medical students bring to patient care teams.
Finally, this is a case where medical students are overlooked and undervalued. It is hoped that awareness of this situation will help administrations maintain transparency and prepare for situations like this to prevent such events from recurring.
Local news coverage:
https://www.nbc12.com/2021/01/05/medical-students-write-letter-vcu-health-regarding-vaccine-plan/