MedLigue – COVID 19 – IFMSA-Brazil

Name of the activity: MedLigue – COVID 19

Country/NMO: IFMSA-Brazil

Program: Communicable Diseases

Contact information: contact [email protected] to get in touch with the Activity Coordinator

Type of the activity: First-time Activity

Category: Education

Focus area: Preventable Diseases

Sustainable Development Goals addressed: SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-Being), SDG 4 (Quality Education)

Problem statement:

Considering a daily average of about 200 cases of COVID-19 in the city of Umuarama, in December 2020, health education measures were necessary. Therefore, at a meeting proposed by the Health Department, medical students were asked to help fight the pandemic. For this, it was proposed that students spread health education, since failure to comply with sanitary measures or lack of knowledge about the disease can compromise the life of the person with COVID-16 and people susceptible to contagion. 

Target groups:

• Patients attending the Basic Health Units of Umuarama who tested positive for COVID-19

Beneficiaries:

• General population
• Medical students
• Patients attending the Basic Health Units of Umuarama who tested positive for COVID-19

Objectives:

1. To inform 1500 patients with COVID-19 who attend the basic health units in Umuarama, about the necessity of care with the disease, explaining the symptoms and ways to prevent contagion;
2. To strengthen the importance of social isolation and compliance with sanitary measures;
3. To get to understand, through specific questions, the reality of patients with COVID-19 and in medical monitoring regarding the health status, such as particular comorbidities of each patient;
4. To offer humanized questions and information that are in accordance with Evidence-Based Medicine;
5. To reinforce the importance of carrying out activities that encourage well-being at home (such as physical exercise), as they can prevent psychological and physical damage during the period of social isolation.

Indicators of Success:

1.  At least 225 patients with COVID-19 who attend the basic health units in Umuarama understand the necessity of care with the disease, comprehending the symptoms and ways to prevent contagion;
2. 225 patients are able to understand the importance of social isolation and compliance with sanitary measures;
3. The medical students who ask the questions are able to understand the reality of patients with COVID-19 and in medical monitoring regarding the health status, such as particular comorbidities of each patient;
4. 225 patients are able to understand information about COVID-19 that are in accordance with Evidence-Based Medicine;
5. 225 patients understand the importance of carrying out activities that encourage well-being at home (such as physical exercise), as they can prevent psychological and physical damage during the period of social isolation.

Methodology:

The MedLigue Project was developed by the local committee of IFMSA Brazil UNIPAR, together with 28 academics, chosen from a selection process launched through a Google Form. The contact of each patient was made available through the partnership with fifteen active Basic Health Units (BHU). Each BHU had a fixed group of students responsible for the calls to COVID-19 positive patients, and within 14 days, the calls would be planned according to the general condition and necessary help measures for each patient. On December 15, 2020, at 7 pm, there was a training given by Dr. Eguimar Roberto Martins to the medical students who would make the calls, which addressed how to ask the proposed questions, how to maintain a healthy, ethical, respectful and empathetic with the individual, how to proceed in the case of patients with severe symptoms and how to answer possible questions from the patients. The activity began on December 21, 2020, aiming to serve around 1500 people. 

Plans for evaluation:

The impact measurement was performed using a form made available to some of the patients served, to some members of the Health Department of Umuarama and to participating academics, similar to a statement of the action and the repercussions, effects and consequences of each call. The form has questions with the possibility of answers from 1 to 5, that is, a scale from bad (1) to excellent (5). Some questions are: “What was the level of satisfaction with the project? How important was the project to society?” In the form there is also a space for a discursive answer so that everyone can talk about the experience of participating in the project, of making some praise or criticism. It should be noted that the form was applied at the end of the customer’s quarantine, that is, on the last call and for only 15% of the serviced, since the expectation was to serve around 1500 people and applying this form to everyone would be unfeasible.

External collaborations:

The students began the elaboration of the project in partnership with 15 Basic Health Units in the city of Umuarama-PR, affiliated with the Universidade Paranaense, through of authorization from the Coordinator of the Medicine Course at UNIPAR, together with the Head of Primary Care of the Health Department of the Municipality of Umuarama. From the data of patients positive for COVID-19 provided by these BHU, the students got in touch with the patients.