Keywords
Clinical clerkships
Clinical competence
Undergraduate medical education
How to Cite
Abstract
Background and Aims: With the implementation of the COVID-19 lockdown, conventional teaching had to be replaced with online teaching, to ensure the continuity of medical education. This has impacted the clinical training of medical undergraduates. We aimed to explore their perceptions and differences before and during the COVID-19 lockdown.
Methods: A cross-sectional online survey using a self-administered, retrospective pre-post questionnaire, was conducted among students from pre-final and final year between December 2020 and March 2021. Agreement scores with 15-items about the various domains of clinical training were recorded. Open-ended question was asked to know about the reasons for the students’ preferences. Chi-square test and Wilcoxon signed rank test were used to compare the proportion and medians respectively.
Results: We received 1000 responses from students of 191 medical colleges {Median (IQR): 6 (2,10) per college}. Most (81.6%) opined that their experience with clinical training was better before COVID-19 lockdown, irrespective of the mode of teaching in clinical skills (P<0.001). In addition, despite being more comfortable, focused, and interactive, online clinical training could not offer interaction with patients, residents and colleagues. Students who had gone through in-person training during lockdown period also perceived disadvantages like limited exposure to patients, limited time for faculty to teach, and less time for clinical practice.
Conclusion: The learning experiences of clinical training during COVID-19 lockdown were perceived as inferior than that before lockdown by the medical undergraduate students, irrespective of the mode of clinical training.
References
Perappadan, B., 2020. India’s first coronavirus infection confirmed in Kerala. [Internet]. New Delhi; The Hindu;2020 January31. Available at: https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/indias-first-coronavirus-infection-confirmed-in-kerala/article30691004.ece.
Sharma, K., 2020. In India, over 32 crore students hit by Covid-19 as schools and colleges are shut: UNESCO. [Internet] ThePrint;2020 April 16. Available at: https://theprint.in/india/education/in-india-over-32-crore-students-hit-by-covid-19-as-schools-and-colleges-are-shut-unesco/402889/.
Joseph, J., 2020. India COVID-19: Online Survey Shows Not All Is Well on PPE Availability Front - The Wire Science. [Internet] The Wire Science; 2020 July 5. Available at: https://science.thewire.in/health/india-covid-19-online-survey-ppe-availability-training-containment-zones/.
Patil P, Chakraborty S. Where Does Indian Medical Education Stand Amidst a Pandemic? J Med Educ Curric Dev. 2020 Jan;7:238212052095160.
Al-Swailmi FK, Khan IA, Mehmood Y, Al-Enazi SA, Alrowaili M, Al-Enazi MM. Students’ perspective of bedside teaching: A qualitative study. Pakistan J Med Sci. 2016;32(2):351–5.
Sahi PK, Mishra D, Singh T. Medical Education Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic. Indian Pediatr. 2020;
Choi B, Jegatheeswaran L, Minocha A, Alhilani M, Nakhoul M, Mutengesa E. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on final year medical students in the United Kingdom: A national survey. BMC Med Educ. 2020 Jun 29;20(1).
Kim SM, Park SG, Jee YK, Song IH. Perception and attitudes of medical students on clinical clerkship in the era of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 pandemic. Med Educ Online. 2020;25(1).
Biswas, S., 2021. Why India’s Covid problem could be bigger than we think. [Internet] BBC News; 2020 September 17. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-54176375/.
Patil NG, Chan Ho Yan Y. SARS and its effect on medical education in Hong Kong. Vol. 37, Med Educ; 2003. p. 1127–8.
Al-Rabiaah A, Temsah MH, Al-Eyadhy AA, Hasan GM, Al-Zamil F, Al-Subaie S, et al. Middle East Respiratory Syndrome-Corona Virus (MERS-CoV) associated stress among medical students at a university teaching hospital in Saudi Arabia. J Infect Public Health. 2020;13(5):687–91.
Singh K, Srivastav S, Bhardwaj A, Dixit A, Misra S. Medical Education During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Single Institution Experience. Vol. 57, Indian Pediatrics. Springer; 2020. p. 678–9.
Dost S, Hossain A, Shehab M, Abdelwahed A, Al-Nusair L. Perceptions of medical students towards online teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic: A national cross-sectional survey of 2721 UK medical students. BMJ Open. 2020;10(11).
Harries AJ, Lee C, Jones L, Rodriguez RM, Davis JA, Boysen-Osborn M, et al. Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on medical students: a multicenter quantitative study. BMC Med Educ. 2021;21(1).
Sharma S, Sharma V. Medical Education During the COVID-19 Pandemics — Challenges Ahead. Vol. 57, Indian Pediatrics. Springer; 2020. p. 772.
Nimavat N, Singh S, Fichadiya N, Sharma P, Patel N, Kumar M, et al. Online medical education in india – different challenges and probable solutions in the age of covid-19. Vol. 12, Adv Med Educ Pract; 2021. p. 237–43.
Rajab MH, Gazal AM, Alkattan K. Challenges to Online Medical Education During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Cureus. 2020;12(7).
Hasan N, Bao Y. Impact of “e-Learning crack-up” perception on psychological distress among college students during COVID-19 pandemic: A mediating role of “fear of academic year loss.” Child Youth Serv Rev. 2020;118:105355.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Copyright (c) 2021 Array