Dataset Information

Effects of COVID-19 pandemic on medical students in Jordanian universities: A multi-center cross-sectional study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

There are serious concerns regarding the effectiveness of medical education in its current format during serious crises like the COVID-19 pandemic.

Objective

To explore academic, financial, psychological, & hygienic impact on medical students.

Methods

A cross-sectional, questionnaire-based study of students at different medical schools in Jordan. It included both basic and clinical years.

Results

There were 415 responses. Females constituted 51.8%. Around 50% of the participants were from the 6th year (n = 194, 46.7%). University of Jordan students represented around 40% of the responders. 60% of the students have GPA (Grade Point Average) of less than 3 points. Nearly half of the students indicated that their academic grades were affected during the pandemic. Clinical years' students (51.0%) were more likely to be negatively affected than students in basic years (36.1%), P value 0.026. Sixty three percent reported that they sanitize their hands before touching eyes, nose, or mouth. More than two thirds (70.4%) of students indicated that their mental health was affected in the pandemic. Financial influence was a major aspect in around 53% of students and 34% of students were not able to pay the university fees due to the pandemic. The pandemic affected the elective training course location of 70.9% of respondents. Mental health was affected in 70.9% of students and 65.1% became more anxious or depressed with no significant difference among gender and academic years (P values 0.256 and 0.516, respectively). Students in the clinical years were more afraid of getting the infection than students in the basic years, however this difference was not statistically significant (p = 0.084).

Conclusions

Covid-19 Pandemic negatively affected the academic course of the medical students especially at the clinical training years' level across Jordanian universities. COVID-19 pandemic left a negative impact on psychological & mental health of the students, too, rendering them more anxious, depressed, and afraid of coming to the hospital and handling patients.

SUBMITTER: Al-Husban N

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8209674 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:OBJECTIVES:To investigate perceptions of medical students on the role of online teaching in facilitating medical education during the COVID-19 pandemic. DESIGN:Cross-sectional, online national survey. SETTING:Responses collected online from 4th May 2020 to 11th May 2020 across 40 UK medical schools. PARTICIPANTS:Medical students across all years from UK-registered medical schools. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES:The uses, experiences, perceived benefits and barriers of online teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic. RESULTS:2721 medical students across 39 medical schools responded. Medical schools adapted to the pandemic in different ways. The changes included the development of new distance-learning platforms on which content was released, remote delivery of lectures using platforms and the use of question banks and other online active recall resources. A significant difference was found between time spent on online platforms before and during COVID-19, with 7.35% students before versus 23.56% students during the pandemic spending >15?hours per week (p<0.05). The greatest perceived benefits of online teaching platforms included their flexibility. Whereas the commonly perceived barriers to using online teaching platforms included family distraction (26.76%) and poor internet connection (21.53%). CONCLUSIONS:Online teaching has enabled the continuation of medical education during these unprecedented times. Moving forward from this pandemic, in order to maximise the benefits of both face-to-face and online teaching and to improve the efficacy of medical education in the future, we suggest medical schools resort to teaching formats such as team-based/problem-based learning. This uses online teaching platforms allowing students to digest information in their own time but also allows students to then constructively discuss this material with peers. It has also been shown to be effective in terms of achieving learning outcomes. Beyond COVID-19, we anticipate further incorporation of online teaching methods within traditional medical education. This may accompany the observed shift in medical practice towards virtual consultations.