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Global Health Education during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Challenges, Adaptations, and Lessons Learned.

ABSTRACT: Global health education programs should strive continually to improve the quality of education, increase access, create communities that foster excellence in global health practices, and ensure sustainability. The COVID-19 pandemic forced the University of Minnesota's extensive global health education programs, which includes a decade of hybrid online and in-person programing, to move completely online. We share our experience, a working framework for evaluating global health educational programming, and lessons learned. Over the decades we have moved from a predominantly passive, lecture-based, in-person course to a hybrid online (passive) course with an intensive hands-on 2-week requirement. The pandemic forced us to explore new active online learning models. We retained our on-demand, online passive didactics, which used experts' time efficiently and was widely accessible and well received. In addition, we developed a highly effective synchronous online component that we felt replaced some of the hands-on activities effectively and led us to develop new and innovative "hands-on" experiences. This new, fully online model combining quality asynchronous and synchronous learning provided many unanticipated advantages, such as increasing access while decreasing our carbon footprint dramatically. By sharing our experience, lessons learned, and resources, we hope to inspire other programs likewise to innovate to improve quality, access, community, and sustainability in global health, especially if these innovations can help decrease negative aspects of global health education such as its environmental impact.

SUBMITTER: Krohn KM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8641357 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has considerably impacted the clinical education and training of health workers globally, causing severe disruptions to learning environments in healthcare facilities and limiting the acquisition of new clinical skills. Consequently, urgent adaptation measures, including simulation training and e-learning, have been implemented to mitigate the adverse effects of clinical education. This scoping review aims to assess the impact of COVID-19 on medical education and training, examine the implemented adaptation measures, and evaluate their effectiveness in improving health workers' education and training during the pandemic. Methods: Employing the PRISMA-ScR framework and Arksey and O'Malley's methodological guidance, we conducted a scoping review, systematically searching PubMed, medRxiv, Google, and DuckDuckGo databases to account for the grey literature. The search included studies published between 1 December 2019 and 13 October 2021, yielding 10,323 results. Of these, 88 studies focused on health worker education and training during the pandemic. Results: Our review incorporated 31,268 participants, including physicians, medical trainees, nurses, paramedics, students, and health educators. Most studies (71/88, 81%) were conducted in high-income and lower-middle-income countries. The pandemic's effects on health workers' clinical skills and abilities have necessitated training period extensions in some cases. We identified several positive outcomes from the implementation of simulation training and e-learning as adaptation strategies, such as enhanced technical and clinical performance, increased confidence and comfort, and an expanded global educational outreach. Conclusions: Despite challenges like insufficient practical experience, limited interpersonal interaction opportunities, and internet connectivity issues, simulation training, e-learning, and virtual training have proven effective in improving clinical education and training during the COVID-19 pandemic. Further research is required to bolster preparedness for future pandemics or similar situations.

Project description:The occurrence of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was followed by a small burst of cases around the world; afterward, due to a series of emergency non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs), the increasing number of confirmed cases slowed down in many countries. However, the lifting of control measures by the government and the public's loosening of precautionary behaviors led to a sudden increase in cases, arousing deep concern across the globe. arousing deep concern across the globe. This study evaluates the situation of the COVID-19 pandemic in countries and territories worldwide from January 2020 to February 2021. According to the time-varying reproduction number (R(t)) of each country or territory, the results show that almost half of the countries and territories in the world have never controlled the epidemic. Among the countries and territories that had once contained the occurrence, nearly half failed to maintain their prevention and control, causing the COVID-19 pandemic to rebound across the world-resulting in even higher waves in half of the rebounding countries or territories. This work also proposes and uses a time-varying country-level transmission risk score (CTRS), which takes into account both R(t) and daily new cases, to demonstrate country-level or territory-level transmission potential and trends. Time-varying hierarchical clustering of time-varying CTRS values was used to successfully reveal the countries and territories that contributed to the recent aggravation of the global pandemic in the last quarter of 2020 and the beginning of 2021, and to identify countries and territories with an increasing risk of COVID-19 transmission in the near future. Furthermore, a regression analysis indicated that the introduction and relaxation of NPIs, including workplace closure policies and stay-at-home requirements, appear to be associated with recent global transmission changes. In conclusion, a systematic evaluation of the global COVID-19 pandemic over the past year indicates that the world is now in an unexpected situation, with limited lessons learned. Summarizing the lessons learned could help in designing effective public responses for constraining future waves of COVID-19 worldwide.

Project description:The development of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) COVID-19 Treatment Guidelines began in March 2020 in response to a request from the White House Coronavirus Task Force. Within 4 days of the request, the NIH COVID-19 Treatment Guidelines Panel was established and the first meeting took place (virtually-as did subsequent meetings). The Panel comprises 57 individuals representing 6 governmental agencies, 11 professional societies, and 33 medical centers, plus 2 community members, who have worked together to create and frequently update the guidelines on the basis of evidence from the most recent clinical studies available. The initial version of the guidelines was completed within 2 weeks and posted online on 21 April 2020. Initially, sparse evidence was available to guide COVID-19 treatment recommendations. However, treatment data rapidly accrued based on results from clinical studies that used various study designs and evaluated different therapeutic agents and approaches. Data have continued to evolve at a rapid pace, leading to 24 revisions and updates of the guidelines in the first year. This process has provided important lessons for responding to an unprecedented public health emergency: Providers and stakeholders are eager to access credible, current treatment guidelines; governmental agencies, professional societies, and health care leaders can work together effectively and expeditiously; panelists from various disciplines, including biostatistics, are important for quickly developing well-informed recommendations; well-powered randomized clinical trials continue to provide the most compelling evidence to guide treatment recommendations; treatment recommendations need to be developed in a confidential setting free from external pressures; development of a user-friendly, web-based format for communicating with health care providers requires substantial administrative support; and frequent updates are necessary as clinical evidence rapidly emerges.

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Global Health Education during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Challenges, Adaptations, and Lessons Learned.

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