'We've Got Nothing But Time': Medical Students Step Up To Care For Kids Of Healthcare Workers On Front Lines Of Coronavirus Pandemic
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- A group of medical residents and students in Baltimore is pitching in to help overworked colleagues struggling to find child care now that daycares across Maryland except those serving essential personnel have closed due to the coronavirus.
With the flood of COVID-19 cases in Maryland, medical professionals need to be at work more urgently now than ever, but many have seen their child care evaporate or become more uncertain.
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That's where hundreds of medical students are stepping up, volunteering to care for the children of doctors and nurses so they can go to work.
"I haven't gotten a chance to spend this much time with kids during med school," fourth-year student Nicole Campion Dialo said.
She spent Friday watching baby Charlie, whose mom Molly Greenberg is a nurse with Healthcare for the Homeless.
"I'm so grateful that Nicole is home with Charlie," Greenberg said.
Johns Hopkins resident physician Julius Ho arranged the program.
"We wanted to make sure we could do our part to keep healthcare workers in Baltimore safe and on the job," he said. "We've been reaching out to nurses and providers and connecting them with volunteers we've recruited from local universities as a backup if their nanny or daycare options fall through."
Ho said the program has grown quickly due to needs from families like Greenberg's.
"We started off at University of Maryland Medical Center and Hopkins but now have expanded to cover all the hospitals in Baltimore," he said.
Volunteers like fourth-year medical student Mary Peeler and second-year graduate student Arbor Dykema, who spent Friday caring for a baby named Evie while her parents were hard at work at an area hospital, said they have nothing but time.
"As a fourth-year medical student, my classes before graduation have all been canceled including graduation," Peeler said.
The doctors-in-training are trying to make it a little easier on their colleagues by caring for their little ones.
"I just love watching him learn and try things like take markers out of a box and put them back in," Campion Dialo said. "We've got nothing but time."
To learn more about the group, click here.
They have also set up a GoFundMe to help medical support staff who may not be able to work due to the coronavirus; click here to learn more.
For the latest information on coronavirus go to the Maryland Health Department's website or call 211. You can find all of WJZ's coverage on coronavirus in Maryland here.
