Medical students lend a hand
More than 450 medical students will help doctors and nurses this summer in a volunteer program aimed at supporting understaffed rural health clinics, breaking previous records of participation.
This year, the students will head for 10 days each to 120 destinations around Greece, 65 of which are providing them with free board. Among the latter are the islands of Spetses, Santorini, Tinos, Mykonos, Syros, Kythira, Patmos, Naxos, Donoussa, Psara, Nisyros, Kos, Rhodes, Samos, Lesvos, Samothraki, Crete, Lefkada, Kefalonia and Corfu, as well as Karpenissi, Loutraki, Areopoli, Kyparissia, Leonidio and Xylokastro on the mainland.
Dimitra-Maria Kyriazi, the general coordinator of the “Medical Disembarkation” program, who is in her fourth year of medical school, says the purpose of the program is twofold: To support medical and nursing staff in remote health clinics at a time when more hands are needed due to tourism, and for future doctors to receive a more comprehensive training by familiarizing themselves with a variety of emergency and non-emergency incidents in real conditions, as they will be called upon to deal with during their rural medical service (internship).
The participants come from all of the country’s medical schools and have completed at least one year of training, to ensure the necessary medical knowledge. As Kyriazi points out, all the participants are under the supervision and guidance of the doctors they are assisting. “This gives a sense of security to both us and the patients we treat,” she explains. Kyriazi herself will be travelling to Syros with a fellow student where they will work at the local clinic.
Coastal shipping companies Blue Star Ferries, Hellenic Seaways, ANEK Lines and Fast Ferries are partners in the program, providing free ferry tickets to the participants.
The initiative, launched by the Scientific Society of Medical Students of Greece, runs from July 18 to September 5.
