New York University medical students have been offered the opportunity to graduate three months early so they can help the overworked doctors and hospital staff fighting the coronavirus pandemic.
The Grossman School of Medicine sent an email to its graduating class on Tuesday explaining the option for its students to graduate early and start interning in their field before 1 July, Brief19 first reported.
"With the growing spread of Covid-19, our hospitals inundated with patients, and our colleagues on the front lines working extra-long hours, we are still short-staffed in emergency and internal medicine," the email reads. "Burnout of our doctors has become a growing concern."
Students who meet all the graduation requirements are eligible to graduate early.
But the members of the class who agree have to start interning as an MD at NYU's Internal Medicine and Emergency Medicine departments.
According to the email, the graduating class could join the workforce as soon as April to help NYC as it fights the pandemic.
The city has become the epicentre of the virus with more than 15,597 testing positive for Covid-19 in NYC and over 26,376 confirmed cases in New York state. As of Wednesday morning, 271 people in the state died from the virus. On Tuesday, it was revealed cases were doubling in the state every three days.
Allowing medical students to graduate early comes as New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has said the hospitals are expected to become severely impacted with Covid-19 patients in the coming weeks.
"In response to the growing spread of Covid-19, and in response to Governor Cuomo's directive to get more physicians into the health system more quickly, NYU Grossman School of Medicine and NYU have agreed to permit early graduation for its medical students, pending approval from the New York State Department of Education, Middle States, and the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME)," Kate Malenczak, a spokesperson for New York University's Langone Health, told Business Insider.
This volunteer option is open to students outside of the school's emergency medicine and internal medicine department, the email says.
Students who volunteer will receive full compensation and benefits as an interning graduate.
