COVID-19: Five Ways Emergency Physicians Can Help Outside of the ED
As emergency physicians, you are already doing a lot every day to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus and to triage every patient who walks through your doors.
In addition to your life-saving day (or night) jobs, VACEP has an opportunity and an obligation to help educate the public, allay fears, and enlist their support in the work we are doing together.
Here are five quick ways you can help today:
1: Stay informed and keep us in the know. Check our resources page for the latest information from ACEP, the CDC, and VDH. If you know of any key incidents or updates at your hospital. Send them to Sarah Marshall, Executive Director. Here’s her email.
2. Help your colleagues stay informed. ACEP is offering free 3-month membership to all emergency physicians eligible for membership. If you have a colleague that is not a member, please let them know about this offer so they can have access to ACEP's COVID-19 resources and discussion thread.
If they are interested in joining, tell them to email membership@acep.org, or call (844) 381-0911.
3: Record a quick video to share with patients — answer common questions and share your story. You’ll want to position yourself in your car, outside, or in an office without sensitive information in the background. Be sure to also hold your phone vertically.
Be sure to state your name, then talk about your coronavirus experiences. Here are some starter questions. We just need about a minute of video.
What’s one thing you can do today to protect yourself?
What’s something you can do to help your friends and family?
What’s something I’d like the public to know?
How is COVID-19 impacting me and my family?
Thank the public for their help, and be sure to empathize that we’re all in this together. Email your video to sarah@vacep.org. We will share it publicly.
*If you don’t feel like videotaping yourself, you can still tell us your story by writing down your experience and sending it to sarah@vacep.org
4: Follow us on Facebook. Share our posts with friends and family.
5: Join the ACEP COVID-19 communication hub. It’s a members-only community for coronavirus discussion