key: cord-0942608-m78bq6pd authors: Lee, Yong-Hoon; Ha, Jane; Park, Hyunmi title: Volunteering and social engagement of medical students in South Korea during the COVID-19 pandemic date: 2021-11-30 journal: Korean J Med Educ DOI: 10.3946/kjme.2021.212 sha: 81be8eeba58c6b8acb26b4393d51087b7d5d186c doc_id: 942608 cord_uid: m78bq6pd nan Due to the widespread outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), many classroom-based lectures moved online, and medical school clinical clerkships were affected to differing degrees across the world [1] . While lectures and clerkships were on hold, medical students worldwide sought after their duties and social responsibilities in the midst of this pandemic. Here, we introduce medical student-led volunteering activities planned and performed in South Korea (Korea from here on) and share our thoughts on how to increase future participation by analyzing foreign medical students' volunteering activities in the literature. Some volunteering activities from medical students abroad comprised of medical practices that met national medical demands for COVID-19 testing and patient care. We present some exemplary cases of students performing medical practices; In Switzerland, physicians in the Corona Task Force consisted of physicians who recruited and trained volunteer medical students in nasal and oropharyngeal swabs. Students participated in 936 shifts of COVID-19 testing under physician supervision due to the high demand for swab-testing workforce [2] . Medical students who ran the Cardinal Free Clinics, an already existing student-run free clinics from Stanford University, developed a telehealth clinic model to continue providing medical service while the physical clinics were forced to close due to the pandemic situation [3] . In addition to running the clinics using a video platform, they also assessed social needs to address patient hardships during the pandemic. Other non-clinical activities led by medical students included support for health care workers. One of the committees organized by students at Harvard Medical School named "Community Activism" conducted and performed activities such as assisting childcare for hospital staffs or delivering groceries for the elderly or immunocompromised individuals who had difficulties going outside during the pandemic [4] . Students from the University of Nebraska Medical Center collected and distributed personal protective equipment and coordinated community mask sewing to support frontline health care workers [5] . Despite the lack of formalized volunteering activities, Korean medical students found social needs that could be addressed as a group. Medical students, together with attending and resident doctors in Korea, participated in a blood donation relay which started on August 7th, 2020 [6] . The public's anger against medical practices of any kind, regardless of supervision or public health crisis situation, by unlicensed medical students ultimately cancelled any kind of potential voluntary work [8] . The pandemic has given rise to student-led free clinics to be integrated into the medical school curriculum in countries such as Australia, Canada, United States, and Germany where students participated in the provision of health care for underserved populations [9, 10] . Asklepios Medical School maintained this system by recruiting one licensed health care professional for supervising and educating three students per session as a team [9] . Students had to complete an extensive training program before joining such team. Unless these curricula are introduced into our regular medical school programs, student-based medical volunteering in a large group may be difficult to accomplish without rigorous training and supervision to appease the wary public. Korea's early pandemic response led to a relatively Published studies state that medical students participating in student-run free clinics experienced an improvement in knowledge, skills, and attitudes through their volunteering activities [11] . Students also reported to have developed empathy, heightened social awareness, and increased their interest in helping underserved populations [12] , which are virtues defined as the principle of primacy in patient welfare and the principle of social justice in terms of medical professionalism. 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