The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) was first reported in December 2019 in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. It is distinguished by symptoms resembling pneumonia. The virus spread rapidly, resulting in an epidemic in China and around the world. As a result, the World Health Organization declared it a worldwide pandemic on March 11, 2020. As of October 2, 2020, there had been more over 34.3 million documented cases of COVID-19 worldwide, with over 1,000,000 deaths associated with the virus in more than 180 countries.
Undoubtedly, COVID-19 is harmful to all of us. But the medical students are one of the worst victims.
Do you want to know why? Please continue reading this blog.
What Were the Challenges of Medical Students During COVID-19?
As the COVID-19 pandemic spreads around the world, it is having a negative impact on medical student education. Furthermore, COVID-19 poses a number of challenges to medical students’ physical and mental health, as well as their formation of a professional identity. As a result of the COVID-19 disruption, medical students are becoming increasingly anxious. Medical students have higher levels of depression, suicidal tendencies, and depression stigma, and they are less likely to seek help. As a result, it is critical to protect their mental health.
The Impact of COVID-19 on Medical Education
During the pandemic, the majority of students agreed to assist in hospitals. Furthermore, the majority of them felt they were wasting their study time as a result of the pandemic and subsequent school closure. Many agreed that the pandemic had impacted their personal well-being, and most of them were concerned about being exposed to COVID-19 during their medical training. However, few students said COVID-19 had no effect on their career or future specialty training. And a few students believed their medical faculty guided them during the pandemic.
Program Suspension –
Clinical experiences were withheld from medical students. The entire curriculum was converted to a virtual delivery format. There were no activities on campus. Online exams were the only hope for medical students. The licencing exams were postponed. Due to a lack of sufficient personal protective equipment (PPE), students who must continue patient contact during the pandemic are limited in their respiratory assessments, compromising their comprehensiveness in practical experience. Professionals who offer medical essay paper help service online agree with this.
Physical & Mental Issues
As COVID-19 affected their physical, emotional, and mental well-being, medical students were becoming increasingly anxious. Long-term social isolation can have a negative impact on mental health. The COVID-19 pandemic had the potential to exacerbate pre-existing mental health conditions.
With the death toll rising by the day and news and social media overflowed with COVID-19 discussions, it’s difficult to remain unaffected. Adapting to the new “normal” of medical student education with a lack of on-campus learning, a lack of peer interactions, a lack of direct patient care involvement, and increasing barriers to professional identity formation as medical students struggled to discover their worth in health care is exceedingly difficult.
Training Experiences
According to a survey, a significantly lower percentage of medical students from low and middle-income countries reported that the pandemic affected their placement duration, preparation for the next stage of training, and confidence in clinical skills.
While the proportion of students performing clinical tasks without adequate supervision was low across clinical and pre-clinical years, a significantly higher proportion in clinical years reported clerking in patients, performing clinical procedures, and assessing or managing acutely ill patients during the pandemic.
How to Support the Medical Students?
Medical students are valuable assets to the health-care system. While they are currently unable to provide hands-on patient care, they can certainly assist in other nonclinical aspects of medicine such as COVID-19 phone triaging, telehealth, phone-based patient care services, and providing childcare for health care workers. As we fight this pandemic, it is critical that we foster altruism and a sense of usefulness in our future physicians.
As we face health professional shortages, especially during COVID-19, supporting our future doctors is critical. We can overcome this unbelievable COVID-19 disruption as a strong, sympathetic, and adaptable community if we work together.
Mental Health
Medical schools around the world should strengthen mental health support for their students based on China’s experiences with COVID-19-related mental health challenges. Medical schools should maintain virtual contact with their students.
Casual “checking in” emails to maintain open communication are an excellent way for students to contact you if necessary. Weekly online class meetings will allow students to communicate with one another and share their thoughts and struggles. It will enable them to “connect” despite their social distance.
Limiting multiple separate communications about COVID response to one robust weekly communication sharing the action plan is a good way to reduce student anxiety and bring some organisational order in the midst of chaos.
Giving mental health visits, preferably without charge and with the ability to remain anonymous, will encourage medical students to seek help and receive professional assistance in dealing with their negative emotions. Planning a virtual graduation celebration would most likely brighten their day.
Physical Health
Medical students are our future, and it is critical that they are protected. Medical schools are making every effort to keep students safe from COVID-19. Their patient-contact participation had been suspended nationwide, primarily for their own safety and to account for PPE shortages.
PPE is required for medical students who must participate in clinical trials. Medical students who have a history of exposure should be quarantined. Medical schools should keep a list of all medical students with a history of exposure and continue to monitor their symptoms and refer them to their doctor for further treatment.
Those suffering from the disease should seek medical attention as soon as possible.
Education
Researchers and clinicians are already working hard to help medical student education. Furthermore, 2022 graduation criteria should be changed institutionally to facilitate timely student graduation. Schools could consider early graduation for their final year participants in order to strengthen the physician task force for the pandemic; several schools have already made this courageous decision.
Residency programmes should consider expanding their admission criteria for 2023, taking into account students’ inability to do visiting extra classes. Experts who offer various assignment help Brisbane services, such as programming homework help, abide by the same.
Final Thoughts,
COVID-19 has dramatically altered the landscape of medical education and training. We are not but these may have long-term consequences. Remarkably, there has been a shift in attitude toward infection control, with an increasing emphasis on hygiene practices at both the individual and institutional levels.