Background: COVID-19 has drastically changed medical school curriculum across the country. In March, the AAMC recommended pausing clinical activities for all medical students [1]. In response, the University of New Mexico School of Medicine (UNM SOM) transitioned to a virtual curriculum and implemented a four-week virtual public health course on COVID-19, followed by virtual clerkships for third- and fourth-year students. Because the virtual format did not include patient interaction, there was a need for curriculum changes to enable students to interact with patients and improve telemedicine skills.
Purpose: To address this need, UNM SOM students and faculty collaborated to create a remote hotline through which students could answer incoming calls to the hospital about COVID-19 and receive academic credit for it.
Description: The hotline is operated by students from the medical, physician assistant, pharmacy, physical therapy, and nursing schools. Hospital phone operators notify student volunteers of incoming calls through a HIPAA compliant instant messenger platform and transfer the call to the first available volunteer. Volunteers maintain a frequently updated handbook that includes an institution-based algorithm for testing recommendations, a script for providing test results, and links to additional resources. Between March 31 and October 9, 2020, 188 student volunteers from the UNM Health Science Campus worked at least one shift for the hotline. Students logged a total of 1,203 shifts and 5,732 hours, and those in the UNM SOM had the option to receive service credit for a concurrent public health elective, as part of their Doctoring curriculum, or as part of a longitudinal service elective. Students answered questions about COVID-19 disease processes, hospital testing procedures and hours of operation, and COVID-19 test results. The hotline allowed students to assist hospital operators with the increased call volume due to COVID-19 and received positive feedback from the participating operators in the form of written testimonies.
Conclusions: The creation of a remote, student conducted, COVID-19 hotline was a robust curricular response to the change in medical education, the increased hospital call volume, and the public confusion which followed the pandemic. It allowed students from multiple healthcare disciplines to connect with patients and develop valuable telemedicine skills. It also assisted hospital phone operators with an overwhelming number of calls, many of which were medically focused and outside the scope of their role. Lastly, it provided reliable information to community members in a time where misinformation was rampant. Going forward, we hope that this hotline serves as a template for future programs that will allow medical students to interact with patients remotely to serve community needs, while receiving academic credit for their efforts.