Immediate consequences and solutions used to maintain medical education during the COVID-19 pandemic for residents and medical students: a restricted review

François Chasset,Olivier Steichen,Matthias Barral,Anne Legrand

doi:10.1136/postgradmedj-2021-139755

Abstract

BackgroundThe COVID-19 outbreak has dramatically impacted medical education, both bedside and academic teaching had to be adapted to comply with the reorganisation of care and social distancing measures.ObjectivesTo overview the...

Highlights

Since March 2020, the world has been facing the COVID-19 pandemic and despite the development of several vaccines,[1] the situation remains critical and the pandemic uncontrolled
On the one hand in most countries medical students were excluded from in-h ospital daily activities, in-p ersons classes and clinical rotation[2]; on the other hand, medical residents were involved in the management of COVID-19 patients, and non-urgent staff, meetings, conferences, in-persons classes, elective surgical procedures and clinical rotations were cancelled.[3]
48 (48/60; 80%) were field experience reports describing pedagogical tools used during the COVID-19 pandemic and 12 (12/60; 20%) were observational or interventional studies assessing a pedagogical tool or using a survey to characterise the impact of COVID-19 on medical education

Summary

Introduction

Since March 2020, the world has been facing the COVID-19 pandemic and despite the development of several vaccines,[1] the situation remains critical and the pandemic uncontrolled. The COVID-19 outbreak has dramatically impacted medical education, both bedside and academic teaching had to be adapted to comply with the reorganisation of care and social distancing measures. Objectives To overview the impact of the pandemic on medical education, including the pedagogical responses adopted and their assessment by medical students and residents. Material and methods This restricted systematic review was performed using Rayyan QCRI, to select observational or interventional articles and field experience reports assessing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on medical education for medical students and residents. Simulation tools were used more frequently in articles involving surgical specialties (15/29; 52%) compared with medical specialties (2/14; 12%) (p=0.01). Four studies reported the assessment of pedagogical tools by medical students, their MERSQI scores ranged from 5.5/18 to 9.0/18. Medical students’ assessment of pedagogical tools was mostly positive, but the methodological quality of those studies was limited

Results

Discussion

Conclusion