HEALTHCARE students are working on the frontline to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.

Twenty-six University of Worcester’s final year MSc Physician Associate students have continued in their placements across Worcestershire, Herefordshire and Gloucestershire, providing support to the clinical teams, seeing patients and reducing workloads where possible.

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Liz Davies-Ward, Head of the School of Allied Health and Community, said: “Our physician associates have shown amazing commitment and have stepped up wherever they could to bolster the healthcare workforce, helping to alleviate pressure on NHS community level services and hospital care. "The whole teaching team is very proud of how our students have stepped up to help wherever they can, whilst also working to qualify as Physician Associates to enter the healthcare workforce permanently.”

The students have been keeping in close contact through their student society, offering each other support throughout this time.

Society chair, Andy McDonough, said: “Many of the third years have been working during the current pandemic, doing all they can to help patients and the NHS.

"The students have really stepped up to the mark. It is daunting but we have all had fantastic support from the university and we are doing what we have been training for."

The University of Worcester was the first university in the UK to launch a Physician Associate Master’s course in September 2014.