Health profession students' outlooks on the medical profession during the COVID-19 pandemic: a global perspective.

BACKGROUND: This article summarizes a global study of the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on junior health professions students' outlook on medicine. The pandemic has significantly affected health professions education. There is limited understanding of how students' pandemic experiences will affect them, and what impact these events may have on their career paths or the future of the professions. This information is important as it impacts the future of medicine. METHODS: In the Fall 2020 semester, 219 health professions students at 14 medical universities worldwide responded to the question: 'Has this experience (with COVID-19) changed your outlook on medicine as a profession?'. Short essay responses were semantically coded and organized into themes and subthemes using an inductive approach to thematic analysis. RESULTS: 145 responses were submitted. Themes were identified: (1) students reflected on the interaction between politics and healthcare; (2) reported becoming more aware of the societal expectations placed on healthcare professionals, including undertaking high risks and the sacrifices that healthcare professionals must make; (3) found reassurance from the recognized importance of healthcare professionals and expressed pride to be entering the profession; and (4) reflected on the current state of healthcare, including its limitations and future. CONCLUSION: Most students, independent of the extent of the pandemic in their respective countries, noted a change in their outlook regarding medicine. An overall positive outlook was noted in most junior students. Educators need to work on nurturing these sentiments and attitudes to help young students maintain a healthy relationship towards their chosen profession.

A thematic analysis of students' discussions on death and body donation in international online focus groups.

Historically, Anatomy education is an in-person discipline involving exposure to human body donors that facilitates personal and professional growth through, in part, the initiation of reflection on the topic of death. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic the decreased exposure to cadaveric anatomy for many health professions students may have influenced the depth of their individual reflections on this topic. Accordingly, this study aimed to investigate the effect of an alternate approach-focus group discussions between peers with varying degrees of exposure to cadaveric material-that may offer one strategy to stimulate deep reflection on the topic of death. A programmatic intervention was introduced, wherein students (n = 221) from 13 international universities discussed differences in their anatomy courses during small focus group sessions as part of an online exchange program. An inductive semantic thematic analysis was conducted on responses to an open-ended text-response question on how the activity influenced students' reflections about death. Resulting themes were organized into categories that described the content and topics of the students' discussions as they grappled with this sensitive topic. The students reportedly engaged in deep reflection and expressed an increased sense of connectedness with their peers, despite their disparate exposure levels to cadaveric anatomy and being physically distanced. This demonstrates that focus groups with students experiencing different laboratory contexts can be used to help all students reflect on the topic of death and that interchanges between dissecting and non-dissecting students can initiate thoughts about death and body donation among non-dissecting students.

The Anatomy Course During COVID-19: The Impact of Cadaver-Based Learning on the Initiation of Reflection on Death.

Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic, in-person cadaveric dissection laboratories for teaching anatomy were omitted by many schools around the world. While knowledge domains can be easily evaluated via remote exams, non-traditional discipline-independent skills such as those encouraged through reflection on the topic of death are often overlooked. This study investigated how different anatomy course formats played a role in initiating students' reflections on death during the COVID-19 pandemic. Method: In fall 2020, 217 medical, dental, premedical, and health sciences students from 13 international universities discussed differences in their anatomy courses online. Formats of anatomy courses ranged from dissection-based, prosection-based, hybrid (combination of dissection and prosection) to no laboratory exposure at all. Students' responses to the question, "Did/does your anatomy course initiate your thinking about life's passing?" were collected, and they self-reported themes that were present in their reflections on death using a multiple-choice prompt. Statistical analyses to detect differences between students with and without exposure to cadavers were performed using the chi-squared test. Results: When comparing students who had exposure to human anatomical specimens to those who had no exposure, the majority of students with exposure thought that the course did initiate thoughts about life's passing, compared to students without exposure (P < 0.05). Reflection themes were consistent across groups. Discussion: These findings indicate that anatomy dissection courses are important for the initiation of students' feelings about the topic of death. Omission of cadaveric dissection- or prosection-based laboratories will decrease the likelihood that students initiate reflection on this topic and gain important transferable skills.

Responding to Covid-19: A thematic analysis of students' perspectives on modified learning activities during an emergency transition to remote human anatomy education.

In March 2020, the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) global pandemic forced many post-secondary institutions to move their teaching online, which had a substantial impact on students enrolled in laboratory-based courses in fields like human anatomy. This descriptive study collected students' perspectives on the transition to remote education, with specific attention to the teaching activities, resources, and assessments used in an undergraduate Clinical Human Visceral Anatomy course at McGill University. Through inductive semantic thematic analysis, student-held values for effective remote education were identified and grouped into the following themes: (1) preferences for communication, (2) values for remote learning activities and resources, (3) values for remote assessment, and (4) perceived positive and negative impacts of remote education on learning. Students generally valued having clear communication, opportunities for both synchronous and asynchronous learning activities, and flexible assessment formats that maintained alignment with the course outcomes and activities. Many felt that remote education had a net-negative impact on their learning, course satisfaction, and sense of community. However, there were no significant differences in grades on laboratory quizzes administered before and after the shutdown (P = 0.443), and grades on the remote final examination were significantly higher than those on the in-person midterm examination (P < 0.001). These findings are discussed in the context of modern educational theories and practices related to remote teaching. Strategies for facilitating a student-centered environment online are also proposed. Future longitudinal research into skill development, learning outcome attainment, and the evolving perspectives of students and instructors operating in remote education contexts is warranted.

Evaluating In-person and Remote Delivery of Human Anatomy Laboratory Education Among Medicine and Dentistry Students

As remote teaching has become the forefront of education during the COVID-19 pandemic, anatomy curricula have been forced to adapt to provide quality education for core competencies. In particular, in-person laboratory components have been largely reduced or removed from anatomy teaching to comply with social distancing guidelines. While this has compromised typical learning environments, it offers a unique opportunity to implement remote teaching practices in anatomy and assess their impact on students? learning. The Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at McGill University has initiated a hybrid teaching strategy for the anatomy laboratory curriculum that combines limited hands-on cadaveric dissection with remote laboratory-adjacent activities using a 3-D software application (Complete Anatomy 2021). During the Fall 2020 semester, first-year medicine and dentistry students had the opportunity to experience both teaching formats while learning respiratory and cardiovascular anatomy. Our study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of this hybrid curriculum delivery format by comparing in-person versus digital teaching approaches implemented within the same cohort on the following outcomes: (i) student and instructor experiences, (ii) students? approach to learning (SAL) and performance, and (iii) faculty time, resources, and cost considerations. Given that hands-on cadaver-based learning is considered the gold standard in anatomy education, we hypothesized that the in-person teaching format would be associated with higher deep and lower surface learning scores, higher grades, and higher resource requirements. The qualitative feedback revealed greater student preference for in-person dissection learning. Comparisons of SAL between in-person and remote delivery formats revealed no significant differences in students? deep or surface approach scores between in-person and remote delivery formats during the respiratory (deep: p = 0.63;surface: p = 0.84) or cardiovascular (deep: p = 0.18;surface: p = 0.22) anatomy laboratory sessions. Further, no significant differences were noted in mean grades on the laboratory exam when correlated with the respective in-person vs. remote learning format for both respiratory (p = 0.65) and cardiovascular (p = 0.18) blocks. Together, these findings suggest that irrespective of the teaching method utilized, students adopted similar approaches to learning anatomy and performed equally well in summative assessments. Pending a thematic analysis of instructors? experiences, resource use, and cost considerations, findings from this study will help guide educational policy revisions aimed at maintaining student-centered learning during current and future disruptions to in-person teaching.

The anatomy course during the time of COVID-19 - students’ initiation of reflections on life's passing in dissection and non-dissection anatomy courses

Background During the COVID-19 pandemic, in-person cadaveric dissection to teach anatomy was often omitted. While knowledge-based assessment can be evaluated via remote exams, soft skills (e.g., reflections on the topic of death) can often be overlooked. This study aims to quantitatively investigate how different anatomy course formats play a role in initiating students? reflections on life's passing, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Method In the fall semester of 2020, 216 medical, dental, premedical undergraduate, and health sciences students from 14 international universities discussed (in small groups) differences in their anatomy courses as part of an online exchange program. Formats of anatomy education delivery in the 14 universities ranged from dissection, hybrid dissection-prosection, and prosection only, to no laboratory exposure during the pandemic. Students? responses to the question, ?Did/does your Anatomy course initiate your thinking on life's passing?? were collected utilizing a multiple-choice question and a short essay. Statistical analysis was performed using Chi-square analysis. Results 105 students dissected (group 1), 21 had a hybrid dissection-prosection class (group 2), and 79 had no dissection (group 3). 11 students did not have an anatomy course. Within the 3 groups, 149 students had exposure to human anatomical specimens and 52 students did not. A majority of students in groups 1 and 2 reported that the anatomy course helped them to initiate reflections on the topic of death, compared to those in group 3 (75% and 71% respectively, versus 36%, p<0.05). The majority of students who had exposure to human anatomical specimens thought that the course did initiate thoughts about life's passing, compared to students who did not have this exposure (p<0.05). Students who did not dissect during the time of the pandemic felt that talking with their peers who did dissect during this period (i.e., at schools that did offer dissection) resulted in initiating thoughts about the topic of death. Discussion Anatomy dissection courses and exposure to human anatomical specimens help initiate reflection on the topic of life's passing. During the COVID-19 pandemic interactions between students who do not dissect and their peers who do dissect help initiate thoughts about the topic of death in the non-dissecting students, as reflected by their essays. Without exposure to human bodies there is less chance that students will think about this subject. Conclusion Anatomy dissection courses are important for the initiation of students? feelings about the topic of death. During the COVID-19 pandemic, dissecting students can help non-dissecting students with initiating reflections about life's passing by discussing this subject with each other.