There were moments when I would look up at the imposing iron-arched roof through my steamed-up visor, with the beeping of monitors in the background, and feel as though I was living through a horror movie. Although this pandemic did not involve zombies, the war-like atmosphere of a field hospital proved somewhat intimidating on my first day deployed as clinical support at the NHS Nightingale North West. Just weeks beforehand, in a pre-Covid-19 world, I had been a fourth-year medical student preparing for my end-of-year OSCE examinations.