When the COVID-19 pandemic forced the medical school to transition to online classes, M4 Josh White wanted to help.
“Us medical students have our online classes, which is good, but we’re sitting here while all the other healthcare workers are helping patients,” White said. “I just wanted to do something useful.”
His volunteering and the connections he built led to him securing a donation of 1,600 face shields for WMed Health, the clinical services of the medical school.
White said he learned of the volunteer group MedSupplyDrive, started by medical students from Georgetown University School of Medicine to get personal protective equipment to physicians on the front lines, and decided to get involved with the organization’s Michigan chapter.
Through his connections with other Michigan chapter volunteers, White secured 1,600 face shields for WMed Health that had been donated by Ford Motor Company and Get Us PPE Chicago. Other WMed students helped the effort, including fellow M4s Christine Stevens, Marine Bolliet, Tasha Trainer, Jalynn Zou, Emma Swayze and M3 Maria Magidenko.
White also secured surgical masks and gowns that he was able to distribute to organizations in the Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids areas, including West Michigan Air Care, Senior Care Partners P.A.C.E., Holy Family Healthcare and Heritage Community of Kalamazoo.
Robin Scott, the medical school’s Occupational Health Manager, said White reached out to her and asked what WMed might need.
“We had already gotten a large donation of PPE,” Scott said. “We had just purchased some face shields but I knew they weren’t going to be enough.”
Scott told White she could use 1,500 face shields – but she didn’t dream she’d get them all. Instead, White delivered 1,600 on May 5. The donation is valued between $4,800 and $6,400.
‘I aimed high not necessarily expecting to get them all, and then I got 100 more, so I was just floored,” Scott said.
White’s facilitation of the donation allows each WMed Health the ability to distribute up to five face shelds to each faculty member and resident who works in patient care, Scott said. The shields can be cleaned and reused, but are not built for longterm use, Scott said.
Typically face shields are used in procedures to protect against something that might splash or splatter back at a medical provider, but providers are using them in the COVID-19 pandemic to protect N95 masks from droplets and preserve them amidst a shortage of personal protective equipment.
“With N95s being in short supply, that’s why we’re using face shields more than we normally do,” Scott said.
White’s face shields are among several donations WMed Health has received, ranging from cloth surgical masks sewed medical students and used for non-clinical staff to a $150,000 donation of PPE from Kalamazoo business owners Charles and Lynn Zhang. Several WMed students also have volunteered their time to pack food for Kalamazoo Loaves and Fishes, to provide childcare or grocery shopping for faculty, staff and residents at WMed and to deliver food for Meals on Wheels.
“We’re just so fortunate because we’re not a large-scale hospital, we’re an ambulatory clinic and I think it’s amazing the community support we have had,” Scott said. “The students’ learning has been dramatically changed from what it was, and here they are staying active in the community and helping even though they’re not on clinical rotations.”