Abstract
Background/Aims: To avoid the negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on clinical clerkship, supplemental teachings such as digital materials in the scenario-based distal simulations were implemented. This study utilized the OSCE (objective-structured clinical examination) to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the learning outcome of medical students from the regular group (class of 2020) and pandemic-impacted group (class of 2021). Methods: All medical students serially took, firstly, the mock-OSCE, secondly, the mock-OSCE, and the national OSCE. Then, the serial OSCE scores were compared between groups. Results: Although with similar scores in the first mock OSCE, the regular group (n = 78) had a higher average score in the national OSCE than the pandemic-impacted group (n = 80) (872.18 vs. 834.96, p = 0.003). In terms of improvement, the performances of the regular group were also better than the pandemic-impacted group between the second mock OSCE and the national OSCE (79.10 vs. 38.14, p = 0.014), and between the second mock OSCE and the national OSCE (125.11 vs. 77.52, p = 0.003). While separating distinct genres, the regular group had more of a score increment in standardized patient-based stations between the second mock OSCE and the national OSCE (regular vs. pandemic-impacted: 57.03 vs. 18.95, p = 0.003), as well as between the first mock OSCE and the national OSCE (75.97 vs. 26.36, p < 0.001), but there was no significant difference among the skill-based stations. In particular, the scores of the emergency medicine associated station in the national OSCE of the pandemic-impacted group was lower. Conclusions: Our study implies that the pandemic significantly hampered the learning outcomes of final year medical students in their clinical participation. Especially facing the COVID-19 pandemic, more supplemental teachings are needed to compensate the decreasing emergency medicine exposure.
Highlights
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was first reported in December 2019 and spread rapidly with an outbreak throughout the whole world, creating more than 217 millionInt
This study aims to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and supplemental teaching on the learning outcome of medical students by utilizing serial OSCEs
Since the COVID-19 pandemic occurred, supplemental teaching such as online lectures was used in the training of medical students, and parts of patient care demonstrations were trained by virtual education, and the decrease in exposure to high-risk departments such as the emergency room were supplemented with simulation trainings in clerkships
Summary
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was first reported in December 2019 and spread rapidly with an outbreak throughout the whole world, creating more than 217 millionInt. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was first reported in December 2019 and spread rapidly with an outbreak throughout the whole world, creating more than 217 million. Res. Public Health 2022, 19, 208 cases confirmed and over 4.55 million deaths worldwide as far [1]. The pandemic affected medical education worldwide [2], since the opportunities of patient care and bedside teaching for medical students were restricted in attempts to lower viral transmission and to keep social distances [3]. For students’ safety during the pandemic, some training through clinical rotations were suspended [4], a lot of effort has been exerted to ensure the integrity and continuity of medical education, such as pre-recorded lectures, online classes and meetings, as well as virtual, augmented, mixed reality-based materials in scenario-based simulations [5,6]
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