The COVID-19 pandemic: doom to international medical electives? Results from two German elective databases

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Abstract

Objective

International medical electives are an essential part of medical education and popular among medical students. During the COVID-19 pandemic, however, many students had assistantship placements postponed and electives cancelled. Educational institutions switched face-to-face campus-based teaching to virtual platforms. Although it is conceivable that international medical electives were particularly affected by this development, numerical data on this phenomenon is yet scarce. To investigate how the COVID-19 pandemic influenced the clinical elective behavior of German-speaking medical students, we systematically analyzed two large German online databases (Famulatur-Ranking and PJ-Ranking) cataloging medical elective experience testimonies.

Results

The COVID-19 pandemic substantially reduced the number of German medical students undertaking abroad medical electives. Between 2018 and 2020, a total of 10,976 reports were uploaded to both databases. We observed a notable decline in abroad elective reports in 2020. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, almost 5% of reports uploaded to “PJ-ranking” covered an international medical elective. This number dropped to 1.68% in 2020. Analyzing “Famulaturranking”, we observed a comparable phenomenon. While 4.74% of reports in 2019 covered an international elective, the number dropped to 2.02% in 2020. The long-term consequences of this phenomenon will be subject to future research.

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Medical Student Education in the Time of COVID-19

Suzanne Rose (2020)

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Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on medical education: Medical students’ knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding electronic learning

Ahmed Alsoufi, Ali Alsuyihili, Ahmed Msherghi … (2020)

The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has caused an unprecedented disruption in medical education and healthcare systems worldwide. The disease can cause life-threatening conditions and it presents challenges for medical education, as instructors must deliver lectures safely, while ensuring the integrity and continuity of the medical education process. It is therefore important to assess the usability of online learning methods, and to determine their feasibility and adequacy for medical students. We aimed to provide an overview of the situation experienced by medical students during the COVID-19 pandemic, and to determine the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of medical students regarding electronic medical education. A cross-sectional survey was conducted with medical students from more than 13 medical schools in Libya. A paper-based and online survey was conducted using email and social media. The survey requested demographic and socioeconomic information, as well as information related to medical online learning and electronic devices; medical education status during the COVID-19 pandemic; mental health assessments; and e-learning knowledge, attitudes, and practices. A total of 3,348 valid questionnaires were retrieved. Most respondents (64.7%) disagreed that e-learning could be implemented easily in Libya. While 54.1% of the respondents agreed that interactive discussion is achievable by means of e-learning. However, only 21.1% agreed that e-learning could be used for clinical aspects, as compared with 54.8% who disagreed with this statement and 24% who were neutral. Only 27.7% of the respondents had participated in online medical educational programs during the COVID-19 pandemic, while 65% reported using the internet for participating in study groups and discussions. There is no vaccine for COVID-19 yet. As such, the pandemic will undeniably continue to disrupt medical education and training. As we face the prospect of a second wave of virus transmission, we must take certain measures and make changes to minimize the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak on medical education and on the progression of training. The time for change is now, and there should be support and enthusiasm for providing valid solutions to reduce this disruption, such as online training and virtual clinical experience. These measures could then be followed by hands-on experience that is provided in a safe environment.

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The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on final year medical students in the United Kingdom: a national survey

Byung Choi, Lavandan Jegatheeswaran, Amal Minocha … (2020)

Background The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) global pandemic has resulted in unprecedented public health measures. This has impacted the UK education sector with many universities halting campus-based teaching and examinations. The aim of this study is to identify the impact of COVID-19 on final year medical students’ examinations and placements in the United Kingdom (UK) and how it might impact their confidence and preparedness going into their first year of foundation training. Methods A 10-item online survey was distributed to final year medical students across 33 UK medical schools. The survey was designed by combining dichotomous, multiple choice and likert response scale questions. Participants were asked about the effect that the COVID-19 global pandemic had on final year medical written exams, electives, assistantships and objective structured clinical examinations (OSCEs). The survey also explored the student’s confidence and preparedness going into their first year of training under these new unprecedented circumstances. Results Four hundred forty students from 32 UK medical schools responded. 38.4% (n = 169) of respondents had their final OSCEs cancelled while 43.0% (n = 189) had already completed their final OSCEs before restrictions. 43.0% (n = 189) of assistantship placements were postponed while 77.3% (n = 340) had electives cancelled. The impact of COVID-19 on OSCEs, written examinations and student assistantships significantly affected students’ preparedness (respectively p = 0.025, 0.008, 0.0005). In contrast, when measuring confidence, only changes to student assistantships had a significant effect (p = 0.0005). The majority of students feel that measures taken during this pandemic to amend their curricula was necessary. Respondents also agree that assisting in hospitals during the outbreak would be a valuable learning opportunity. Conclusions The impact on medical student education has been significant, particularly affecting the transition from student to doctor. This study showed the disruptions to student assistantships had the biggest effect on students’ confidence and preparedness. For those willing to assist in hospitals to join the front-line workforce, it is crucial to maintain their wellbeing with safeguards such as proper inductions, support and supervision.

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Author and article information

Contributors

Maximilian Andreas Storz:

ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3277-0301

maximilian.storz@uniklinik-freiburg.de

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): BMC Res Notes

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): BMC Res Notes

Title: BMC Research Notes

Publisher: BioMed Central (London )

ISSN (Electronic): 1756-0500

Publication date (Electronic): 26 July 2021

Publication date PMC-release: 26 July 2021

Publication date Collection: 2021

Volume: 14

Electronic Location Identifier: 287

Affiliations

[1 ]GRID grid.7943.9, ISNI 0000 0001 2167 3843, School of Medicine, , University of Central Lancashire, ; Preston, UK

[2 ]GRID grid.5963.9, Center for Complementary Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, , University of Freiburg, ; Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany

Author information

Maximilian Andreas Storz http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3277-0301

Article

Publisher ID: 5708

DOI: 10.1186/s13104-021-05708-3

PMC ID: 8312202

PubMed ID: 34311768

SO-VID: 4daacfa7-d5b5-4a18-b23e-f9a15c392542

License:

Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ( http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.

History

Date received : 10 March 2021

Date accepted : 20 July 2021

Funding

Funded by: Universitätsklinikum Freiburg (8975)

Open Access :

Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL.

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ScienceOpen disciplines: Medicine

Keywords: covid-19 pandemic,sars-cov-2,elective,medical student,clerkship,international health,global health,public health

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ScienceOpen disciplines: Medicine

Keywords: covid-19 pandemic, sars-cov-2, elective, medical student, clerkship, international health, global health, public health

The COVID-19 pandemic: doom to international medical electives? Results from two German elective databases

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Most cited references 14

Medical Student Education in the Time of COVID-19

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on medical education: Medical students’ knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding electronic learning

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on final year medical students in the United Kingdom: a national survey

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