Michael Broderick had just woken up after working in the ICU the previous night when he read the email: U-M medical students were being pulled from their rotations due to the coronavirus pandemic. Broderick understood the order was for student and patient safety, but its full implications were unclear. Like many of his fellow students, he was compelled to act.
“I rushed to the hospital to figure out how I could help hand off my patients and to get more information on what this meant,” he says. “After saying goodbye to the residents, I walked home feeling kind of useless. Like many students, I felt that the skillset I had could benefit someone.”
While COVID-19 has elicited feelings of uncertainty and anxiety, it also has inspired a groundswell of humanitarianism. When the pandemic impacted their world, U-M’s medical students immediately wanted to make a difference — and they have. From sorting donated personal protective equipment (PPE) at the North Campus Research Complex to delivering groceries to vulnerable populations to rescheduling patient appointments, members of the quickly formed M-Response Corps have worked tirelessly to meet an endless stream of pandemic-related needs since mid-March.
Nadine Ibrahim, a fourth-year medical student, is one of four M-Response Corps co-leaders. She is both pragmatic and altruistic about the unanswered questions the pandemic raises for her.
“No one planned this, and we don’t know what the ramifications will be as far as our training for hospital rotations, but that isn’t foremost on our minds right now. We are in medical school because we want to help people,” she says.
Read the entire feature on the M-Response Corps on the Michigan Today website.