Med student looking for PPE donations

by CHAD INGRAM

A Queen's medical student from Bancroft is collecting donations of personal protective equipment for local health- care facilities amid the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak.

Danielle Robinson is a third-year medical student at
Queen's University.

“Colleagues of mine in Kingston have been rounding up PPE donations locally for distribution,” Robinson told Bancroft This Week in an email. “There is a large group of medical students and spouses of physicians there who are involved in calling businesses, picking up orders and distrib- uting, as well as raising money for PPE.”

A group of Queen's students is also making PPE using 3D printers. “As of April 1, they had 86 3D printers running and 100 volunteers who are helping to print the materials, and put them together once each part is completed,” Robinson wrote.
Like Robinson, a number of students from the school are collecting and distributing PPE in their hometowns. Any residents of Bancroft who have personal protective equipment such as face masks or medical gowns that they are willing to donate can contact Robinson at [email protected] or 613-334-9844 and she will coordinate pick-up and drop-off to the QHC North Hastings Hospital. The Belleville General Hospital is also collecting donations of PPE that is being
distributed through the Quinte Health Care system, including
at the Bancroft site.

As for her classes, Robinson says things have gone digi-
tal at the Queen's campus since in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. First- and second-year students in her program are continuing their studies with online lectures via the Zoom teleconferencing platform. Third-year students such as Robinson had been in the midst of their “clerkships,” which is experiential learning that takes place in clinics and hospitals. Since being pulled from those facilities, third-year
students are also conducting work virtually, and have been working on issues related to the COVID-19 outbreak.
“Several unique opportunities have arisen as well,” Robinson wrote. “Students are volunteering with Public Health Kingston to help with contact tracing, and currently, I am completing a two week History of Society and Epidemics course put together by Dr. Jenna Healey at Queen's.”

Students in the fourth year of the program are set to gradu-
ate “virtually” in May.