UPEI Nursing students volunteering to support Island health-care providers

Students from UPEI’s Faculty of Nursing are joining with nursing and medical students across Atlantic Canada to support health-care providers. This student-led initiative includes students from UPEI’s Nursing Society, Memorial University’s Medical Society, and the Dalhousie University Medical Society.

Student volunteers will be matched with health-care providers who need help with child care, running errands, pet care, and other tasks, to provide support and relief during the increased workload of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It is important for students in health care to make an effort to help the health-care practitioners currently in our province working hard to fight COVID-19 because we understand and appreciate how challenging a time this is for them,” said Kitty Yin, a fourth-year student in UPEI’s Faculty of Nursing.

Volunteers must be health-care students with CPR training and meet strict criteria to limit exposure to and spread of the virus. Careful records will be kept to track exposure. Students interested in volunteering can read the criteria and sign up here. Health-care providers who would like to sign up for relief and support through the initiative can do so here.

“I am very encouraged by the creative efforts of our UPEI nursing students who are volunteering to provide support for health-care providers in the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Dr. Jo-Ann MacDonald, interim dean of nursing at UPEI. “The past few weeks have been incredibly difficult for everyone, and I am very proud of the resiliency of our students in the face of unprecedented challenges.”