Virtual Hospital Tour and Observership for First and Second-year Medical Students / 医学教育

Students in all years, including those in lower years, were prohibited from coming to campus because of COVID-19, which began to spread in January 2020. However, we believed that a hospital tour and observership would be important practical training for first and second year medical students as part of the early exposure program, which aims to increase student motivation. Thus, we decided to conduct a virtual hospital tour and a virtual observation of medical doctors’ work. We used Zoom to conduct a virtual hospital tour for first-year students in June, and a virtual observation of physicians’ work for second-year students in December. Although this offered less of an opportunity to experience the reality of the clinic, there have been benefits in terms of increased learning content, fairness of learning opportunities delivered, and the promotion of independent learning. With regard to a “Hospital Tour” and the “Observation of Medical Doctors’ Work” , we believe that hybrid forms, which are able to skillfully combine the strengths of the two methods, would be effective.

Experiential Training in Elementary and Junior High School Education through the Creation of Health Guidance Videos / 医学教育

At Saitama Medical University, elementary and junior high school experiential training was conducted to give students experience with health promotion, health guidance, and communication with different generations. In the 2020 FY, each small group was in charge of different grades and themes. They created a 10-minute health guidance video remotely. By doing the video project remotely, students could take time to do group work and deepen their understanding of the theme and children of the target grade. It also became easier to teach students how to use the PC tools needed for the task. The students learned not only the knowledge necessary for health guidance, but also how to concretely assess the target person and convey information as consciously as possible. It is important to nurture within students an attitude of seriously engaging in the training despite not physically going to school. For this reason, communication with the school is important.