Abstract
Introduction: COVID-19 is a highly infectious disease caused by an RNA virus belonging to a large family of coronaviruses. WHO declared COVID-19 as a public health emergency and classified it as a pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic affected the medical education globally.
 Aim of the Study: The aim of the study is to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 on the internship program.
 Materials and Methods: A cross‑sectional study was conducted among the medical and dental students of various universities in Makkah region of Saudi Arabia. A questionnaire consisting of 15 close ended, pre-tested questions was developed to determine the experiences and perceptions of medical and dental interns due to COVID-19. The data were tabulated and analyzed using SPSS version 21. Chi-square test was used to assess the experiences and perceptions among the Medical and Dental interns. P-value of less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: The study included 453 participants, out of which 253 were dental interns and 200 were medical interns. 231 (51%) of male interns participated in this study and 222 (49%) female interns participated. 140 (55.6%) and 138 (69.3%) of the participants of the dental and medical interns respectively felt COVID-19 affected options to select specialties of their interest for post-graduation, whereas, 112 (44.4%) and 61 (30.7%) of the dental and medical interns felt other way. Conclusion: Majority of the participants reported that COVID-19 did not affect them psychologically. In addition, most of the medical and dental interns felt covid -19 affected opinions to select specialties of their interest for post-graduation.
Highlights
COVID-19 is a highly infectious disease caused by an RNA virus belonging to a large family of coronaviruses
The study included 453 participants, out of which 253 were dental interns and 200 were medical interns. 231 (51%) of male interns participated in this study and 222 (49%) female interns participated. 140 (55.6%) and 138 (69.3%) of the participants of the dental and medical interns respectively felt COVID-19 affected options to select specialties of their interest for post-graduation, whereas, 112 (44.4%) and 61 (30.7%) of the dental and medical interns felt other way
Age of the participants ranged from 25 to 28 years, out of which 112 (24.7) of them belongs to 25 years, 206 (45.5%) of them belongs to 26 years, 124 (27.4%) of them belongs to 27 years and 11 (2.4%) of them belongs to 28 years group (Table 2)
Summary
COVID-19 is a highly infectious disease caused by an RNA virus belonging to a large family of coronaviruses. WHO declared COVID-19 as a public health emergency and classified it as a pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic affected the medical education globally. Materials and Methods: A crosssectional study was conducted among the medical and dental students of various universities in Makkah region of Saudi Arabia. Medical and dental students pursue their careers with general practice or Postgraduate studies based on the available options. They begin working at academic institutions or dental clinics. Career counselling is very important aspect for the medical and dental interns in pursuing their dreams. All medical and dental associations should help the institute to arrange career counselling and prepare medical and dental interns to face the challenges after graduation [2,3]
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