There are national calls for volunteer physicians to support COVID-19 efforts. Meanwhile, NPs, PAs, and RNs are getting paid + hazard pay.

Meanwhile, resident physicians at places like @USC are getting trained to do what are typically nursing functions. You know why? Resident labor is much cheaper than RN labor, even before hazard pay.

All the while the societal and professional pressure falls on physicians to altruistically volunteer (i.e. travel to work without pay) in the name of the common good.

Physicians are now expected to pay for travel and lodging to work for free in a setting that is arguably one of the most dangerous of their careers.

Even if YOU, as a financially secure, healthy, thrill-seeking physician want to volunteer, I urge you to consider what the implications are for less privileged colleagues, residents, and medical students.

At the very LEAST, please consider asking for in-kind relief for students, residents, and other physicians with heavy student loan burdens. Notably, the CARES act allows for tax-free student loan payments from employers on the behalf of employees.

We must be compensated.

If Trump and the medical-industrial complex want to play the capitalist game, THEY SHOULD P(L)AY!!

Here is the news article about USC residents being trained to supplement nursing duties: https://news.usc.edu/167632/surgical-residents-nurses-critical-care-covid-19/

Here is a news article about salaries and hourly RNs and LPNs getting hazard pay: https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/illinois/articles/2020-04-03/union-gains-covid-19-pay-for-nurses-at-chicago-hospital