SRA, MANRAJGUPTA, AMULYAJAISWAL, ABHISHEKYADAV, KAPILGOSWAMI, ANILGOSWAMI, KIRAN2023-06-272023-06-272022-08SRA MANRAJ, GUPTA AMULYA, JAISWAL ABHISHEK, YADAV KAPIL, GOSWAMI ANIL, GOSWAMI KIRAN. Willingness of medical students to volunteer during the Covid-19 pandemic: Assessment at a tertiary care hospital in India. The National Medical Journal of India. 2022 Aug; 35(4): 247-2510970-258X2583-150Xhttp://imsear.searo.who.int/handle/123456789/218221BACKGROUND The involvement of medical students in strategies to control Covid-19 might be considered to cope with the shortage of healthcare workers. We assessed the knowledge about Covid-19, willingness to volunteer, potential areas of involvement and reasons for hesitation among medical students towards volunteering. METHODS We did this cross-sectional study among undergraduate students at a tertiary care teaching hospital in New Delhi. We used a web-based questionnaire to elicit demographic information, knowledge of Covid-19, willingness to volunteer and reasons deterring them from working during the Covid-19 pandemic, and self-declared knowledge in six domains. RESULTS A total of 292 students participated in the study with a mean (SD) age of 19.9 (3.1) years. The mean (SD) knowledge score of Covid-19 was 6.9 (1.1) (maximum score 10). Knowledge score was significantly different among preclinical (6.5), paraclinical (7.18) and clinical groups (7.03). Almost three-fourth (75.3%) participants were willing to volunteer in the Covid-19 pandemic, though 67.8% had not received any training in emergency medicine or public health crisis management. Willingness to work was maximum in areas of social work and indirect patient care (62.3% each). Lack of personal protective equipment was cited as a highly deterring factor for volunteering (62.7%) followed by fear of transmitting the infection to family members (45.9%), fear of causing harm to the patient (34.2%) and the absence of available treatment (22.2%). CONCLUSIONS A majority of the students were willing to volunteer even though they had not received adequate training. Students may serve as an auxiliary force during the pandemic, especially in non-clinical settings.Journal ArticleIndiaUndergraduate students All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Ansari Nagar, New Delhi 110029, IndiaCentre for Community Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Ansari Nagar, New Delhi 110029, India