Perceptions and attitudes of 4th year medical students in clinical clerkship in the era of the Coronavirus disease 2019

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND@#In the advent of coronavirus disease 2019 global crisis, hands-on patient care and inhospital training of fourth year medical students were suspended across the globe and shifted to remote online education. The aim of this study is to assess the perception and attitude of the 4th year medical students about clinical clerkship training during the COVID-19 pandemic.@*METHODS@#An online survey was sent to fourth-year medical students in three medical schools in lloilo City, from July 2021 to October 2021. The survey questionnaire is a combined dichotomous, multiplechoice, and Likert response scale questions.@*RESULTS@#Of the hundred sixty-eight students who completed the online survey, sixty-six percent did not experience hospital rotation. On average, students were very interested in COVID-19 (8.83) and willing to join in patient care if requested by a hospital or university to help during COVID-19 pandemic (8.65), but felt they were not ready (70%) due to a lack of the ability for clinical practice (90%). Most (82%) of the students expressed they wanted to maintain hands-on clinical practice education despite the pandemic. Overall, students who have experienced hospital rotation have a higher level of understanding of how much their life, behavior (9.30), and role as a medical student (9 .74) were affected by the pandemic as compared to the rest of the students.@*CONCLUSION@#This present pandemic has affected the medical students as a whole in areas of their role as students, behavior, and life. Their lack of confidence despite willingness to help correlated to their inadequate clinical experience. Specific policy adjustments concerning the curriculum of clinical clerkship during this time of pandemic should be revisited to tailor fit the students" needs for safe education to help them prepare to become a competent medical practitioner.