Lori Walsh: Shortages of personal protective equipment have been occurring across the nation. As the COVID-19 cases continue to increase more and more masks and gloves will be needed for healthcare workers to protect themselves and their patients. Students at the Sanford School of Medicine may not be able to be in the hospital, but that doesn't mean they're not still trying to help. Today we're joined by two students organizing a personal protective equipment drive. Ahna Buntrock is a third year med student planning on specializing in OB/GYN and Natalie Walter is a third year med student specializing in emergency medicine. Ahna, welcome. Thanks for being here.
Ahna Buntrock: Thank you so much, Lori. I'm excited to talk to you guys about what we have planned.
Lori Walsh: Natalie, thanks for being here as well.
Natalie Walter: Yes, thank you so much. We are really excited about this opportunity to help others and hopefully spread the word.
Lori Walsh: All right. Let's talk about what you're doing first and then I do want to talk a little bit about how this has changed your own trajectory. But first in the interest of being of service to others, Ahna, let's start with you. What exactly is the need and how are you trying to meet it?
Ahna Buntrock: So I'm sure many people have seen on the news all across the nation, there's shortages of masks and gloves and gowns for the doctors and the nurses and other hospital staff. In light of the increasing number of cases in South Dakota here, we're trying to be a little proactive and collect some of this protective equipment from people that they may have at their homes or at their local businesses.
Lori Walsh: And how is that coordinating? How are you able to get that word out to people? Natalie, you go ahead. Take it.
Natalie Walter: So we are reaching out to several of local businesses, salon parlors, different local schools such as Augustana and getting different donations such as gloves and masks ... great cause. For us, we're also doing a drive for, so we will be located at four different locations across Sioux Falls from 4:00 to 6:00 PM every night this week. Those locations are the zoo, the downtown public library, the Walmart South on Minnesota and the, sorry, Ahna. I'm missing one.
Ahna Buntrock: Avera Fitness Center on the east side of town. Yes.
Lori Walsh: And those are all in parking lots, so you're not going into any, you're not asking people to gather. You're asking people to drop those off with a proper distancing behavior. Tell me a little bit, Ahna, about ... This is something that people had. Are people showing up and saying that they had things that they were willing to give?
Ahna Buntrock: Yeah. No, absolutely. Yesterday was our first day of the drive and we had four medical students posted throughout the town at those locations. And we had people come that have woodworking businesses or like to paint, and so they've had these masks at home that they've just collected throughout the years. And we've [inaudible 00:03:19] quite a few boxes of them and boxes of gloves from other people. It's actually been a pretty good turnout so far. I'm hoping the rest of the week looks as good.
Lori Walsh: I want to talk a little bit about what's happening to you folks. And Natalie, let's start with you because third year med student thinking about emergency medicine, it must be hard for you to feel like you're not in the ER right now, because what a learning opportunity.
Natalie Walter: Definitely. As many of us who are struggling with not being able to be physically present, they are helping patients as that is what we have loved to do for the past year. We've been in the clinic, so now we're having to remove ourselves in order to help protect the community as a whole. I found it very helpful when I talked to other physicians about this and that they are telling us that it's, we have to think about the future. We have to think about protecting the future of medicine. So although right now we're not actively involved, we will be in the future.
Lori Walsh: I'm going to let that sink in for a minute for people, because the future of medicine and protecting it does also imply that it's possible we could lose a lot of our healthcare providers in this pandemic, and that's a sobering thought indeed and heightens the need for this personal protective gear. We do not want those people getting sick. Ahna, how has your medical school journey been upended by this?
Ahna Buntrock: I think for a lot of people, a lot of my classmates that have more surgery-heavy fields of medicine that they're interested in, a lot of the elective surgeries have been canceled at the hospitals. For OB/GYN, that's obstetrics and gynecology, a lot of the different inductions for labor have been canceled. And so it is different for us, but I think we're still doing the best we can to help out the doctors and our teachers who are still on the front lines helping the patients of our community.
Lori Walsh: What's your message, Ahna, for people who are still struggling with some of the restrictions that are in place and trying to figure out how to adjust life at home or may be not so sure that all this is necessary? What do you want to say to them?
Ahna Buntrock: I would like to just say that if you're not concerned as much about yourself, make sure we think about the other people that may be more at risk for this illness, people that are immunocompromised or have some other illness that puts them at increased risk. And so just adjusting our lives at home is going to allow us to hopefully slow down the spread of the virus and then eventually get us all back to our lives once again.
Lori Walsh: So these drop-off locations for personal protective gear if you're a business or if you have these things squirreled away at home, boxes of masks or gloves, you can drop them off in the city of Sioux Falls at the Avera Fitness Center, that's in the east side of town in the employee parking lot there, which is on the southwest side of the building; the Great Plains Zoo parking lot; Walmart on South Minnesota at the pharmacy entrance; and the Sioux Falls Public Library downtown outside the building. Again, those drop-offs are from 4:00 to 6:00 PM local time until April 4th and just look for the PPE drop-off signs. Ahna and Natalie, thank you so much for being here and best of luck as you figure out what's next in your medical careers.
Ahna Buntrock: Thank you so much.
Natalie Walter: Yes, thank you so much.