The covid-19 pandemic has kept us all at home for the past 2 months or so, putting our ordinary day to day lives on hold. As we slowly (albeit prematurely) start to return to normal, some universities have already announced changes to how they'll deliver teaching in order to keep their students safe.
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Medical students will definitely need to be trained appropriately in terms of using PPE and staying safe whilst providing optimum care for patients! I think that is going to be of prime importance!
Yeah definitely. There's been some talk about medical students being treated like "essential workers" in terms of PPE.
really? Where did you see that?
I think we're going to lose a lot of face to face teaching and perhaps even the way OSCEs are done is going to be completely altered.
Oooh how do you think they’ll change OSCEs?
Less patient contact for sure, I think we could be using models to demonstrate. I think we could even have more "virtual stations" where we have to communicate with an examiner via Zoom or something similar
It's going to be interesting to see what happens to lectures with all this. A lot students already liked watching lecture podcasts and recordings online even before the lockdown. So maybe students will prefer lectures being online and will want this permanently, even when it's safe to have them back in lecture theatres. (I don't think I would, but you never know).
Telemedicine may begin to become integrated as part of the curriculum, maybe even virtual ECE visits for the preclinical years!
That sounds really interesting, but do you think the physical aspect of ECE visits is important?
The physical aspect of ECE visits are definitely important. eg. For an appointment, the moment the patient gets up and starts walking in, you can already infer many things from their posture, the way they walk, whether they have any breathing issues etc. Physical cues are just as important for a diagnosis as are verbal cues. So if the visits were done virtually, it would be more challenging and we would have to learn how to adapt to the lack of some patient cues and how to make up for it otherwise.
Hmmm at the end of the day medical education has to continue and certain standards set by the GMC have to be met so I do think with the appropriate PPE put in place, clinical placements will go ahead more or less as planned. By September time, cases will reduce and people will have adapted to the ‘new normal‘. Can’t be certain though. Medical students will be screened prior to commencing for their ‘covid age’ dépendant on their co morbities and if the threshold is met, I think placement can continue
Honestly, the changes we're going to have to adapt to really make me a bit sad 😔 Ik ofc these are all in the best interest of public health, but still, missing out on some aspects of patient interaction is such a shame and I especially feel for first years who won't experience a lot of their "firsts" in the same we we did!
One thing I have noticed being at home, is that the luxury of time is more than ever in our favour. Cutting out some small daily tasks such as travelling, getting food, doing chores etc has meant I have more time that I can use to be productive (still working on that part) and I can't help but wonder: if I sat a semester during lockdown, how would it affect my performance? 🤔 Is online teaching on-par with the IRL experience?
Equally, though, you have to consider the downsides of being home: distractions, no social life, it being wayyy too easy to be lazy, and those same simple chores like travelling, or wasting time with my friends were my favourite parts of the day. I mean, you could live your whole life at home, go through the whole of med school even, but it'd be a v v sad 5 years imo 😓
Perhaps the forced push towards a reliance on e-learning will pave-way for some major advancements in terms of teaching styles of clinical medicine, or possibly, changes in practical medicine? We know that there have already been trials of online GP consultations, could this be a new nationwide system? TBH I can think of an equal number of pros and cons, however, under this pressure maybe we'll crack a new solution..?
I can't imagine how you could learn an examination without being there though :/
The only viable option I can think of is having to make some exceptions to the 'rules' for healthcare students' education, with priority going to final years, down to first year.
Either way, its important to approach this unique experience as an opportunity. Opportunity for exploration, growth and advancements in the world of medicine and medical education 😣🤞🏼🩺
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xoxo,
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a v nice essay i rate it 10/10 A* all the ums points!
i definitely agree! im also wondering how such a great reduction in in-person teaching will affect both the enjoyment and quality of my learning :/// hopefully we wont miss out on too much 😫