Section Head of Clinical Education, QU Health, Vice President for Medical and Health Sciences Office, Qatar University, PO Box 2713, Doha, Qatar.
Section Head of Pre-Clinical Education, College of Medicine, QU Health, Qatar University, PO Box 2713, Doha, Qatar.
BMC Med Educ. 2023 Mar 27;23(1):186. doi: 10.1186/s12909-023-04117-3.
This study aims to qualitatively examine the readiness of medical students to change to virtual clerkship (VC) during the pandemic, from both the faculty and students' perspectives.
A qualitative study was conducted based on the framework of readiness to change. Focus group discussions with students, and semi-structured interviews with clinical faculty members were done using appropriate online platforms. Transcripts were then analyzed using inductive-deductive approach.
Twelve themes emerged which are (1) Perceptions about the university's decision and its communication to students, (2) A Perceived lack of clinical experience, (3) Students' role as members of the medical team facing the pandemic, (4) Student safety, (5) Quality and design of VC and the skills it offered, (6) Belief in own ability to succeed in the VC, (7) Confidence that VC would reach its goals, (8) New enhanced learning approaches, (9) Preparing students for new types of practice in the future (10) Acquired skills, 11) Academic support and communication with faculty and college, and 12) Psychological support. Medical students showed limited readiness to undertake a virtual clerkship and not play their role as healthcare professionals during the pandemic. They perceived a huge gap in gaining clinical skills virtually and asked for a quick return to training sites.
Medical students were not ready for virtual clerkships. There will be a need to integrate novel learning modalities such as patient simulations and case-based learning in order to meet future demands of the medical profession and enhance the efficiency of virtual clerkships.
本研究旨在从教师和学生的角度，定性探讨医学生在疫情期间转为虚拟实习（VC）的准备情况。
本研究基于变革准备框架进行了定性研究。通过适当的在线平台，对学生进行焦点小组讨论，并对临床教师进行半结构化访谈。然后使用归纳演绎方法对转录本进行分析。
共出现 12 个主题，分别为：（1）对大学决策及其对学生的沟通的看法；（2）临床经验不足的感知；（3）学生作为医疗团队成员在疫情期间的角色；（4）学生安全；（5）VC 的质量和设计及其提供的技能；（6）对自己在 VC 中取得成功的能力的信念；（7）对 VC 能够实现其目标的信心；（8）新的增强学习方法；（9）为未来新类型的实践做好学生准备；（10）获得的技能；（11）与教师和学院的学术支持和沟通；（12）心理支持。医学生对进行虚拟实习并在疫情期间不发挥其作为医疗保健专业人员的作用表现出有限的准备。他们认为在虚拟环境中获得临床技能存在巨大差距，并要求尽快返回培训场所。
医学生对虚拟实习准备不足。为了满足未来医学职业的需求并提高虚拟实习的效率，需要整合新的学习模式，如患者模拟和基于案例的学习。
