ABSTRACT
Background: With the spread of the coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19), Sichuan provincial people's hospital, at the frontline fighting this public health crisis, took a lead in the reception, diagnosis and treatment of patients with COVID – 19 in the greater Sichuan area. As an effort to prevent nosocomial infections among the medical staff, we switched from the traditional face-to-face instruction to a web-based multimodal teaching model in our resident training program. Specifically, we explored ways to provide remote training in the proper procedure of donning and doffing of personal protective equipment (PPE). The purpose of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of various teaching methods in teaching clinical skills of our residents during the epidemic period.Methods: 72 resident anesthesiologists (1st to 3rd year) were recruited to receive remote skill training on donning and doffing of PPE. In this study, all participants received instructional videos/text for the proper protocol, in addition to watching a live-stream instructional video that simulated the procedure of donning and doffing of PPE. We matched the residents by year and divided them into two groups through a WeChat Draw Program. The video feedback (VF) group recorded and submitted videos of simulated donning and removing PPE followed by a debriefing session through a collaborative WeChat learning group. The independent learning (IL) group did not record videos, but were encouraged to consult with their instructors by WeChat or phone if they had any questions. Then the two groups completed questionnaire as well as theory tests and skill assessment. Results: The VF group responded positively to the additional video-recording/debriefing approach. We did not observe any significant difference between the two groups in theoretical test scores. However, the VF group had significantly higher performance than the IL group in skill assessment. Conclusion: The web-based teaching, simulation teaching and video feedback model is an effective alternative to the conventional face-to-face instruction as part of an adapted resident training curriculum involving donning and doffing of protective equipment during an epidemic outbreak.