SWAB team instead of SWAT team ‐ students as front‐line force during the COVID‐19 Pandemic

Klasen, Jennifer M; Meienberg, Andrea; Nickel, Christian; Bingisser, Roland

A Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team is trained to deal with troubling situations. The SARS‐CoV‐2 pandemic confronted health care systems with different challenges. In Europe, the first COVID‐19 patients presented in late February 2020. Our region was among the most severely affected in central Europe. Therefore, front‐line operations, such as emergency departments (ED), were highly stressed by immediate demand for diagnostic swab‐testing, and additional personnel were urgently needed within a short time. In the meantime, clinical activities of medical students (MS) were on hold, and teaching had to be restructured to online formats. However, we expected that MS would benefit tremendously from learning opportunities through active involvement in this pandemic.