USD Medical Students Help Fight COVID-19

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, colleges and universities across the country have moved their classes online.  However, there are medical students at the University of South Dakota still gaining real-life experiences during this global crisis.

Dakota News Nows is reporting that students at the USD Sanford School of Medicine are staying in rural communities for at least four weeks to assist the hospitals and clinics with the pandemic.  Typically, some resources are tough to come by in rural areas, and being in a pandemic makes securing these resources that much more difficult.  These medical students at USD not only wanted some professional experience, but they wanted to help others in some way during COVID-19.

Students like Carl Lang and Ryan Schaap are volunteering their time in Winner, South Dakota.  Carl Lang tells Dakota News Now, "We're in this profession to serve others, to help other patients and so I’d say that was the main reason myself and other classmates wanted to come to these rural locations to help out in."

Not only are students donating their manpower in these rural communities in the state, but they are also learning how to assist patients of the future in the event of a global pandemic such as COVID-19 were to strike again.

Other students from the USD Sanford School of Medicine are volunteering their time in Wagner and Redfield.  Besides in-clinic training opportunities, students are also using this time to educate others on the coronavirus. Some students are even babysitting for medical workers or assisting with food distributions.