SPICE-19: a 3-Month Prospective Cohort Study of 640 Medical Students and Foundation Doctors

Soham Bandyopadhyay,Kate Saunders ,Rohan Andrew Pancharatnam ,Ioannis Georgiou,Emily R Bligh ,Conor Coyle,Nansig Collaborative

doi:10.1007/s40670-021-01349-0

Abstract

IntroductionThere is paucity of data around the support that medical students have been provided with, need to be provided with, and would like to be provided with during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study sought to explore the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on medical students and establish the support they require.MethodsA prospective, observational, multicentre study was conducted in 2020. All medical students and interim foundation year 1 doctors were eligible to participate.ResultsSix hundred forty individuals participated from 32 medical schools. Participants reported a drop in their mood following the onset of the pandemic (p < 0.001). This drop in mood was evident in both May and August. Participants did have an improved mood in August compared to May (p < 0.001). There was a significant decrease in pandemic disease-anxiety (13.8/20 to 12.4/20, p < 0.001) and consequence-anxiety (6.3/10 to 6.0/10, p < 0.001) between May and August. Nineteen percent of participants (n = 111/596, 19%) had not received the support they needed from their university by August. The most common area of support that our participants needed and had not received from their medical schools by August was support with course material (n = 58/111, 52%). ‘Clinical knowledge’ was thought to have been affected by the greatest number of participants in both May and August.ConclusionMedical students’ mental well-being has been adversely affected during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our findings have actionable implications that can better protect medical students as they acclimatise to a working environment that has been radically changed by COVID-19.

Highlights

There is paucity of data around the support that medical students have been provided with, need to be provided with, and would like to be provided with during the COVID-19 pandemic
Two thousand seventy-five individuals from all 34 eligible United Kingdom (UK) medical schools were asked to participate in this prospective study
Our findings show that nationally, medical students and foundation year 1 (FiY1) doctors reported that they had a lower mood than they did before the COVID-19 pandemic

Summary

Introduction

There is paucity of data around the support that medical students have been provided with, need to be provided with, and would like to be provided with during the COVID-19 pandemic. The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is responsible for the global pandemic known commonly by the disease name COVID-19 [1, 2]. This has led to the greatest level of collective uncertainty. There is a paucity of data characterising the support that individuals have been provided with, need to be provided with, and would like to be provided with. This is compounded by the fact that some types of support may be less likely to be provided to certain population sub-groups [10, 11], and some areas of support may be less likely to be requested for by certain population sub-groups [12]

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