Student coronavirus initiatives: where are they now?

Human Medicine student Rahel Schmidt and Computer Science student Nicola Rüegsegger have more than just their choice of university in common. At the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, the two ETH Zurich students were also plagued by the same nagging thought: "I have to do something!" And thus two platforms were born: external page Students4Hospitals and external page Care Now, which Schmidt and Rüegsegger were able to establish with remarkable speed, pragmatism and teamwork.

Spring 2020: when the world suddenly changed

Who can possibly forget mid-March 2020? The coronavirus pandemic was spreading, and Switzerland entered lockdown overnight. COVID-19 cases were climbing, the virus was still relatively poorly understood, and the uncertainty was immense. Hospitals and other healthcare institutions found themselves overwhelmed by the situation. But how is someone supposed to help if they themselves are not on healthcare's front lines?

Students4Hospitals: let's do this

Rahel Schmidt, a Bachelor’s student in Human Medicine at ETH Zurich, had a solution in mind. Working together with her friend Luca Schaufelberger, a student of Interdisciplinary Sciences, she founded Students4Hospitals, an online platform that connected student volunteers with healthcare institutions – mostly retirement and nursing homes – for tasks such as checking people at the entrance, simple lab work and administrative jobs.

Over the first few days, more and more students from different universities and disciplines joined the team – also including Nicola Rüegsegger and his team from Medison (see below for more) – all of whom worked night and day to get the online platform up and running.

For Rahel Schmidt, it was a turbulent time: in addition to co-leading the Students4Hospitals project, she herself joined the front lines of the crisis by volunteering at the cantonal hospital in Baden. "Suddenly we had to start checking people at the entrance, patients were no longer allowed to be accompanied by relatives to their doctor's appointments, surfaces had to be disinfected, and lonely people in nursing homes required attention," she says. "Within a matter of hours there was a need for more staff – people who were flexible, enthusiastic, dedicated, and not part of any at-risk groups."

Schmidt says that according to feedback from the healthcare institutions, the 100-plus student volunteers who signed up – all from different subjects and universities – performed their jobs admirably, and it was also a one-of-a-kind experience for the students themselves.

Care Now: founded at just the right time

The situation was similar for Nicola Rüegsegger. A doctor by training, Rüegsegger is completing a second degree in Computer Science at ETH Zurich and runs the start-up external page Medison with his classmate Pascal Wacker. Medison is a health-tech company that operates a career platform for doctors. This past spring, the duo launched Care Now in collaboration with ETH Zurich and eight professional medical associations (including external page FMH, external page SSO and external page vsao).

Unlike Students4Hospitals, Care Now focused on hospitals and provided only trained medical professionals, not student volunteers. Care Now was able to connect approximately 100 volunteers with around 70 healthcare institutions – mostly doctors and nursing staff.

According to Rüegsegger, Care Now's founding in March 2020 came at just the right time. "At the beginning of the pandemic, many people were overwhelmed," he explains. "Hospitals had to figure out what their staffing needs were. Some departments had to close, as elective procedures – meaning operations that could be safely postponed – were all cancelled." For this reason, it was especially important to take a calm and structured approach at the beginning. Here Care Now was able to help out in an important way, with the team taking over the administrative work involved in assigning staff to hospitals – a service that was very much appreciated.

What the future holds

Both Students4Hospitals and Care Now received a lot of requests in March and April. Demand has been on the decline since the early summer months, thanks to the falling number of cases and the fact that medical institutions are now able to cope with the situation using their own staff.

Both platforms are therefore currently in standby mode and are not assigning any volunteers. However, if the situation changes – for instance, if a second wave strikes – both Students4Hospitals and Care Now could be quickly reactivated.

What remains

What do the founders have to say about the experience after running their platforms for half a year? "It was great to build something together with so many different partners, like ETH Zurich and the different professional medical associations, and to do so in such a totally pragmatic, uncomplicated way," says Rüegsegger. "You hardly ever get to experience these kinds of exceptional circumstances. We were always on duty and rarely slept. It was an experience that left a deep impression on me on a personal level. It's something that can't be compared to a normal job."

When it comes to career goals, he and Pascal Wacker want to continue running their joint start-up Medison, which is also dedicated to placing medical professionals where they are needed the most. In this regard, Care Now taught the team valuable lessons. But first and foremost, Rüegsegger needs to complete his Bachelor’s thesis this year.

Rahel Schmidt also has a highly positive assessment of the experience. "Getting Students4Hospitals up and running was an unbelievably valuable experience for me," she says. "The shared energy and drive to get things done shown by everyone who worked on the platform shows that motivated students can make valuable contributions to society." Schmidt believes that it is important to get involved alongside your studies. "Getting involved like this is so personally rewarding," she says. "And I'm not just talking about the learning curve during the initial set up and management, but also the feeling you get when you're able to work together to make the world just a tiny bit better."