Student-led Project Crane soars to impact many communities | MEDICUS 2024 Issue 1

Student-led Project Crane soars to impact many communities
By Dr Chua Li Min, Science writer

In Project Crane 2023, the student volunteers came together to conduct a public health screening event for the workers. This was followed by a series of health talks for the workers // Credit: Project Crane 2023, Duke-NUS

“Is there anything we can do?” That was the question Dr Marco Lizwan and his friends asked themselves when COVID restrictions made their plans for the annual Paediatric Brain and Solid Tumour Awareness project an impossibility.

But just because the carnival-like event for children with brain tumours and their families was impossible to conduct with COVID restrictions, Lizwan (Class of 2023) and his fellow volunteers weren’t ready to give up on community service projects completely.

“We wanted to come up with a new project that we could do as a class,” said Lizwan, who was the vice-president for community service at the time.

And it was out of those restrictions, that a new initiative emerged: Called Project Crane, this community service project was launched to promote the general wellbeing and improve health literacy among marginalised or vulnerable groups, from teenaged girls to taxi drivers.

Last year, Lizwan’s juniors expanded Project Crane by incorporating their ongoing community health screening initiative, benefitting more than 300 migrant workers. The student volunteers came together to conduct a public health screening event for the workers, and gave talks about mental health, workplace safety and injury as well as tips on chronic disease management.

The Project Crane 2023 team share a group photo with faculty advisor, Clin Assoc Prof Tay Ee Guan (front row, fifth from left), who was onsite to lend his support// Credit: Project Crane 2023, Duke-NUS

“I was very delighted to know that it was a bottoms-up initiative—the students actually came up with the idea and volunteered to do it.”
Clin Assoc Prof Tay Ee Guan

“To broaden our outreach, we collaborated with My Brother SG to reach out to more migrant workers,” explained Ms Amanda Lee, a third-year Duke-NUS MD student, who was project director for Project Crane 2023.

“The flexible nature of Project Crane also allowed many possibilities for creativity and imagination,” added Lee's classmate, Ms Dana Chow, a third-year Duke-NUS MD student, who co-directed Project Crane 2023 with her. “We felt that Project Crane and its element of health education—the teaching of basic first aid and cardiopulmonary resuscitation were very fitting for the migrant worker community, since a majority of workers are based in the construction sector.”

Reflecting on the development of the project he helped conceive, Lizwan feels a sense of accomplishment. “I think it’s nice that it has become like a tradition of sorts,” he noted.

Checking all the boxes

But when it all began, it would take Lizwan months before he finalised the scope and details of the project.

Having worked on previous community initiatives before, he knew he had to get the School’s support first before he could proceed to plan the event.

So he mooted the idea of starting a new community service project to management assistant officer, Ms Mary Ng from the Duke-NUS Student Affairs department. “When they (students) come up with any ideas, Student Affairs will try our best to support them,” said Ng.

It was her initial query of whether the project would survive the test of time, which proved pivotal in setting its direction.

“We usually ask our students to make sure that any student interest groups or projects that they initiate are sustainable after they have graduated so there is some form of continuity,” explained Ng.

Dr Marco Lizwan is proud of how far Project Crane has come since its inception // Credit: Duke-NUS

“I remember thinking to myself: ‘Well, I will tweak it so that it survives!’,” recalled Lizwan.

Eventually he decided to focus on public health education, by looking into ways in which his class could help improve health literacy among marginalised or vulnerable groups within the community. “We kept the idea broad so that subsequent batches would want to carry on this project and find a target population they were keen to engage,” explained Lizwan.

So his class decided to focus on youth-at-risk and linked up with Gladiolus Place, a non-profit residential home for vulnerable teenage girls.

But before everything could fall into place, they had to find a faculty advisor who was onboard with the project. And that support came from Clinical Associate Professor Tay Ee Guan, the vice chair of clinical services from Duke-NUS’ Family Medicine Academic Clinical Programme.

“I was very delighted to know that it was a bottoms-up initiative—the students actually came up with the idea and volunteered to do it,” recalled Tay. “It was something that I felt was meaningful.”

“And I could identify with the project because family medicine is also about preventive care and educating the public, so what they wanted to do resonated with me,” added the Director for Education at SingHealth Polyclinics.

Clin Assoc Prof Tay Ee Guan has served as faculty advisor for Project Crane for three consecutive years since 2021 // Credit: Duke-NUS

“They learn real-world medicine, outside the confines of the ward.”
Clin Assoc Prof Tay Ee Guan

Inspired by existing Duke-NUS community service projects that were animal-themed, such as Project Dove and Project Simba, Lizwan and his committee eventually named the project after an animal that aptly represented their hopes for it—the crane—a symbol of longevity, which represented their vision to help people lead healthier and longer lives, as well as their desire for the project’s continuity.

So in 2021, Project Crane took off with its first community outreach project with Lizwan as the project director.

Shifting meetings and lessons online

Because of pandemic restrictions then, planning meetings for the project happened online, including the committee’s first meeting with their faculty advisor.

It also meant that most of the outreach had to be done virtually, which posed new challenges to the team.

“We had to think of creative ways to engage our audience,” recalled Dr Tan Li Ting (Class of 2023), a member in the programmes committee tasked with teaching the girls basic first aid concepts. Instead of relying on traditional lectures to deliver the content, Tan and her partner, Dr Fong Ru Ying (Class of 2023), weaved additional elements into their online lessons, such as game shows and animations.

“To them, it was like more fun, and I think it was quite well received,” she noted.

But there were other components that the committee hoped to include, such as life-saving skills, which had to be done in-person.

With COVID-19 still rumbling on, the class had to tread carefully to ensure the safety of everyone involved, while adhering to the ever-changing restrictions.

“We had to be very flexible with our planning,” recalled Lizwan.

“I hope the project continues to touch many lives, and make an impact on the society.”
Dr Marco Lizwan

But with Tay on hand to guide them during the implementation process, they were well covered: “Because of my clinical experience amidst COVID-19 protocols, I was able to share some of these practices to make sure that things were in place.”

But even with Tay’s expertise, their plans could not be finalised until the last moment. Lizwan added: “Every week, we just kept updating our plan. I think our plan was only finalised two weeks before we actually carried it out.”

But their flexibility paid off. They were ready to conduct an in-person finale to the project as soon as they received the greenlight.

So on 26 March 2021, the students ran a workshop for the girls, teaching them how to administer first-aid and help someone suffering from a cardiac arrest, bringing the project to a finale.

But it wasn’t just the girls who benefitted from the lessons.

An invaluable learning experience outside the classroom

Having served as faculty advisor for the three iterations of Project Crane since 2021, Tay feels that such initiatives give the budding doctors an opportunity to see the healthcare issues that the community is facing.

“They learn real-world medicine, outside the confines of the ward,” he explained, experiences that help students bridge the gap between controlled settings in the hospital and the complexities of healthcare delivery in the community where they have to care for patients from all walks of life with associated psychosocial issues.

IMG-20220315-WA0009

In Project Crane 2022, the student volunteers conducted a CPR training course for about 30 taxi drivers, equipping them with the necessary skills through the Dispatcher-Assisted first Responder (DARE) programme // Credit: Project Crane 2022, Duke-NUS

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Lee, who co-directed Project Crane 2023 agrees: “It reminds us to see each patient as a person and approach their health within the context of their individual lives. For instance, by considering how their occupations may put them at an increased risk of certain health issues.”

Lizwan agrees: “As you talk to the patient, you learn more things about him or her. You can find out more about their life, and maybe even personalise treatments for them.”

Liaising with the home to finalise the lesson content also made Lizwan realise how the learning needs for various populations differed. “One of the things which the girls were concerned about was their body image, so that prompted us to include topics relating to food and nutrition in our outreach,” he recalled.

Others like Tan, found their calling through participating in the project.

“It reminded me of how much I enjoy teaching and educating people,” said the pharmacist-turned-doctor, who aspires to be a future clinician-educator.

As Lizwan and Tan continue to pursue their careers in medicine as house officers, the project which their Class had initiated continues to flourish, with the latest cohort of students bringing it to children attending the School of the Deaf.

“I hope the project continues to touch many lives, and make an impact on the society,” said Lizwan. “Maybe one day, it might even win an award!"