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Maximizing Clerkship Experience During COVID Pandemic
Purpose: Construct a safe and meaningful learning experience for students while respecting needs of patients, staff and limited resources in the COVID-19 pandemic.
Background: Due to concerns related to COVID- 19 in March of 2020, students were removed from the clinical environment in medical schools across the country. Re-entry of students into the clinical environment required buy in from hospital leadership, nursing, and faculty. Hospital leadership was focused on high acuity patient care, containment of COVID and safety of its workforce. A modified OBG clerkship experience was created to respect social distancing, minimize disruption and preserve student safety and learning.
Methods: The modified clerkship was four weeks, equally split between OB and GYN. On each OB or GYN block students had one week (A) of a remote/virtual learning plan comprised of videos, didactics, case- based learning, and quizzes for high yield NBME topics. Week (B) was a shift-based hospital experience.<br> Grading was pass/fail with a modified evaluation tool. Due to unpredictability of faculty and resident schedules, students designated individuals to complete evaluations. Students took the OBG NBME at the conclusion of the rotation.<br>The same clerkship satisfaction survey was completed upon rotation completion for both groups.
Results: Pass rates of the NBME were similar between intervention and control groups (p=1.00). There was a statistically significant improvement noted in the COVID cohort in student perception of engagement “ I was able to play an active role in the care of patients” (p= 0.03) and improved perception of fairness in evaluation “my clinical skills were assessed fairly and objectively during this rotation” (p=0.09).
Discussions: Patient care, safety and learning can be achieved simultaneously on clerkship despite COVID.
Topics:
CREOG & APGO Annual Meeting, 2021, Student, Clerkship Director, Patient Care, UME,
