Students Perception of Medical Education after End of Covid-19 Pandemic and Comparison with Results Obtained During Pandemic

Author(s): Giulia Manzini, Michael Kremer, Ian Hines, Marko Kornmann

Background:

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the status quo of medical training. The primary aim of this work is to assess the opinion of the students regarding medical education after the end of the pandemic and to compare this with already published data about the perception of students during the pandemic in order to define future possibilities in modern teaching.

Methods:

A questionnaire was answered by medical students at the end of the 9th semester in a German university hospital asking them about their perception of medical education after the end of the pandemic. Results were compared with those obtained from the same questionnaire administered during pandemic. Values are presented as mean [± standard deviation] and median [range] for continuous variables. Dichotomic variables are presented as absolute number as well as percent. Groups were compared with the Student t-test for independent samples.

Results:

A total of 92 out of 155 students answered the questionnaire (59.3% response rate). Students felt disadvantaged in their medical education because of the pandemic on a scale from 0 (absolutely not) to 10 (completely) at 5.94 ± 2.2 (range 0-10 points) which was comparable to the group which answered the questionnaire during pandemic. Students missed mostly practical exercises (92.4%), like the previous group (93.5%), followed by contact with other students (65.2%), again as the previous group (65.2%) and to patients (56.5 vs. 58.7% in the previous analysis). Analogously, presence lessons were missed at least (35.8% vs. 28.3% in the previous analysis). Recorded lessons were mostly appreciated (8.1 ± 2.2, range 0-10 points) as also in the previous analyzed group (8.2 ± 2.6, p=0.76). Skills lab was also appreciated but significantly less compared to the previous group (6.9 ± 2.8, range 0-10 points vs. 7.44 ± 3.4, p=0.031). Live-stream lessons were considered as useful as skills lab (6.9 ± 2.5, range 0-10 points), not differently from the previous group (6.6 ± 2.6, p=0.5). E-learning was lesser appreciated than from the other group (6.4 ± 2.4, range 0-10 points vs. 6.8 ± 3.4, p=0.039). 55% of the students found no difference in medical education during and post-pandemic.

Conclusions:

The majority of students felt no difference in education during and after pandemic. Theoretical online education was highly appreciated even after the pandemic and could become the future standard.