In-person to remote transition of the New York university emergency medicine underrepresented in medicine fellowship during the covid-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT

Learning Objectives: 1. Provide a virtual learning experience showcasing EM for pre-clinical URM medical students with no prior EM exposure. 2. Guide students through a scholarly presentation exploring basic study design in EM specific topics. 3. Provide individualized mentorship with URM EM residents and faculty. The EM Department at NYU Langone hosts a monthlong fully funded summer fellowship for rising second year underrepresented in medicine (URM) students from medical schools across the country. During the COVID-19 pandemic, our fellowship transitioned to remote learning to limit disease transmission. Learning objectives typically taught via in-person workshops and clinical shifts were presented in virtual presentations and interactive demonstrations. Equipment such as suture kits, splinting supplies, and wilderness medicine gear was mailed to students prior to the start date. Google classroom, Zoom, and Webex were used to facilitate the online classroom. 15 faculty and 8 residents participated through workshops, didactics, panel discussions, journal clubs, 11 mentoring, and Q&A sessions. Each student worked on a scholarly project throughout with their resident and faculty mentor and then presented it on the last day. The focus of the scholarly project was changed from a clinical focus to a social medicine issue in the students' local communities. We hosted 4 visiting URM students and 2 NYU students. The curriculum was rated from 0 to 10, with resident didactics (7) rated 8.17 (SD 1.91), faculty lectures (15) rated 8.05 (SD 2.20), resident simulation workshops (2) rated 8.75 (SD 1.60), and resident procedural workshops (2) rated 8.58 (SD 1.96). Every participant reported that they are more likely to pursue EM after the fellowship compared to before. This successful transition to a virtual classroom is a viable option to consider for programs seeking to continue education while reducing risk of disease transmission.