Dataset Information

Perception and attitudes of medical students on clinical clerkship in the era of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 pandemic.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been placing severe strain on global healthcare systems and medical education programs, leading to growing demands for medical students to assume the role of preliminary healthcare providers.

Objectives

To assess the perception and attitudes of medical students about clinical clerkship training during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Design

A cross-sectional survey with web-based 3-fields/14-items questionnaire was conducted, from April 7 to 14, 2020, to evaluate their self-assessed perception and attitudes on clerkship training of hospital practice under the COVID-19 outbreak and spread among 161 (78 on pre-clerkship course, 83 on clinical clerkship course) medical students at Dankook University College of Medicine, Cheonan, Republic of Korea.

Results

Of the 151 medical students who completed the survey, 81 students (53.7%) considered themselves familiar with COVID-19. Although the students were concerned about the spread of the virus during clinical clerkship training, 118 (78.1%) students preferred the clerkship training in a hospital practice. The students in the clinical clerkship program preferred this over those in the pre-clerkship program (85.7% vs. 70.2%, P = 0.03), primarily because a clinical clerkship could not be replaced by an online class during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, their responses indicated, in order of significance, fear of not completing the clerkship course on time, willingness to participate as a preliminary healthcare provider in pandemic, the potential waste of tuition, and belief that a hospital is rather safe. The change in the academic calendar had not a positive impact on the lifestyles of many students.

Conclusions

In circumstances such as the COVID-19 pandemic, educational strategies to clinical clerkship training for medical students should be developed to provide them with the opportunity to be actively involved in hospital practice under strict safety guidance focused on preventing virus infection and transmission.

SUBMITTER: Kim SM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7482770 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Similar Datasets

Project description:The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is a global disaster, and recent studies have shown its association with increasing mental health problems such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety, and stress. Nursing students, especially nursing interns, may be shunned, harassed, and even blamed as potential COVID-19 spreaders, though they were an important reserve force against COVID-19 and other diseases. Of note, the psychological influences of COVID-19 on nursing students remained unclear. The aim of this study was to evaluate the mental health of nursing students during the COVID-19 pandemic. A cross-sectional online survey was conducted on nursing students in a vocational college from April 12 to 23, 2020. The Impact of Event Scale-Revised, 21-item Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale, and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index were used to assess the degree of symptoms of PTSD, depression, anxiety, stress, and insomnia, respectively. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was performed to determine the potential risk factors for the psychological symptoms. A total of 1,780 college nursing students were asked to participate in this online survey, with 1,532 complete responses. In total, 682 (44.5%) college nursing students reported having PTSD, 358 (22.8%) students reported insomnia, and few students reported depression (n = 45, 2.9%), anxiety (n = 44, 2.9%), and stress (n = 17, 1.1%) symptoms. As compared with junior, female, and rural nursing students, the senior, male, and urban nursing students had higher rates of PTSD, depression, anxiety, stress, respectively, whereas male nursing students had a higher insomnia rate. Multivariable analysis showed that senior nursing students had higher risks of PTSD, depression, anxiety; being male was associated with higher risks of PTSD, depression, anxiety, stress, and insomnia; and urban nursing students had higher risks of PTSD, depression, anxiety, and stress. In summary, a considerable number of nursing students reported mental symptoms of PTSD and insomnia, though few reported mental symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress. Furthermore, senior, male, and urban nursing students are at risk for developing mental symptoms. Appropriate psychological interventions should be implemented to assure the mental health of nursing students.

Project description:IntroductionEpilepsy is a chronic neurological disorder characterized by repetitive seizures which could occur in different forms depending on the site of brain disturbance. It has both psychological as well as social effects resulting in stigmatization and isolation of epileptic patients. Even though medical students are considered a role model of well-educated communities, previous studies showed that students lack the satisfactory knowledge and attitudes toward epilepsy, so it is important to evaluate the concept of epilepsy and to measure awareness and attitudes toward epileptic patients among medical students of King Abdulaziz University. The aim of this study is to determine knowledge, perception and attitudes toward epilepsy among medical students at King Abdulaziz University.MethodsAn observational cross-sectional study was conducted on 455 medical students from Faculty of medicine, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (Western region) through a web-based survey in July 2018. The survey is composed of many sections (demographic variables, knowledge, attitudes and practices toward epilepsy). The survey was applied as a Google form and the data were analyzed by IBM-SPSS for Windows, version 21.0. The chi-square test of independence was used for data analysis.ResultsFour hundred thirty-six out of 455 students (98.5%) were aware about epilepsy. However, the level of knowledge varies depending on the educational level of these students, because 88.5% of the students responded that brain injury is the most common cause and 57.3% said it is a genetic disease, while 3.7% stated that it was due to evil spirit. As a treatment method, medication and God's help were chosen by 95.8% and 57.8%, respectively. Objection to marry an epileptic patient was the most common negative attitude toward epileptics among the participants. Nonetheless, the overall attitude was found to be positive.ConclusionKing Abdulaziz University medical students have had some misunderstandings regarding causes, manifestations and treatment of epilepsy which could affect their attitudes toward epileptic individuals. Educational programs which include more clinical exposure to such common diseases are required to improve students' impressions of these diseases.