How to comfort a patient dying from coronavirus? Hetty Breed, a third year medical student, took up the responsibility of working as a Healthcare Assistant during the pandemic. She shares the vital lesson that medical school could not teach her. “I’m scared,” my patient whispered, between their shallow breaths, underneath a tightly sealed oxygen mask. In spite of all the communication lessons I received in my medical training, I had no idea how to respond, my mind went comple

Many medical schools around the world were closed with immediate effect. James Woolas, a final year student at Plymouth Peninsula School of Medicine and Dentistry, shares his experiences of the uncertainty this period has brought and why good communication is always vital. “I’m supposed to start work next week and I’ve no idea where I’m supposed to turn up or what I’ll be doing”, I exasperatedly told an academic and six peers via video conference during a medical school teach

The British Student Doctor Journal is starting a new series of articles to share the stories of healthcare workers and students tackling the COVID-19 pandemic. As I stare out across the empty London skyline, I am in awe of how an insignificantly sized virus has brought the world's economies, ambitions and lives to a halt. We didn't think it would possibly happen. It was somewhere far away, exotic, in China. That won't affect me. Within a few short weeks, we have collectively