The impact of pandemic disruptions on clinical skills learning for pre-clinical medical students: Implications for future educational designs
Publication Details
Saad, S.,
Richmond, C.,
King, D.,
Jones, C.,
&
Malau-Aduli, B. S.
(2023).
The impact of pandemic disruptions on clinical skills learning for pre-clinical medical students: Implications for future educational designs.
BMC Medical Education, 23.
Abstract
Background: Pandemic disruptions to medical education worldwide resulted in rapid adaptations to clinical skills learning. These adaptations included moving most teaching to the online environment, decreasing the accepted “hands-on” methods of teaching and learning. While studies have shown signifcant impacts on student confdence in skills acquisition, there is a paucity of assessment outcome studies which would contribute a valuable perspective on whether measurable defcits were incurred. Here, a preclinical (Year 2) cohort was investigated for clinical skills learn‑ ing impacts that could infuence their transition to hospital-based placements.
Methods: A sequential mixed methods approach was used on the Year 2 Medicine cohort, including: focus group discussions with thematic analysis; a survey derived from the themes observed; and a cohort comparison of the clini‑ cal skills examination results of the disrupted Year 2 cohort, compared to pre-pandemic cohorts.
Results: Students reported experiencing benefts and disadvantages of the shift to online learning, including a decrease in confdence in their skills acquisition. End of year summative clinical assessments showed non-inferior out‑ comes when compared to previous cohorts for the majority of clinical skills. However, for procedural skills (venepunc‑ ture) the disrupted cohort had signifcantly lower scores compared to a pre-pandemic cohort.
Conclusions: Rapid innovation during the COVID-19 pandemic provided the opportunity to compare online asyn‑ chronous hybrid clinical skills learning with the usual practice of face-to-face synchronous experiential learning. In this study, students’ reported perceptions and assessment performance data indicate that careful selection of skills suitable for online teaching, supported by timetabled “hands-on” sessions and ample practice opportunities, is likely to provide non-inferior outcomes for clinical skills learning in students about to transition to clinical placements. The fndings can be used to inform clinical skills curriculum designs that incorporate the virtual environment, and assist with future-proofng skills teaching in the case of further catastrophic disruptions.
Keywords
Pandemic, Clinical skills, Transition, Clinical placement, Medical students