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Background: Feedback collated at University College London Medical School (UCLMS) during the COVID pandemic identified how many students felt unprepared for their summative Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs) despite attending mock face-to-face OSCEs. The aim of this study was to explore the role of virtual mock OSCES for improving student's sense of preparedness and confidence levels for their summative OSCEs. Methods: All Year 5 students (n=354) were eligible to participate in the virtual mock OSCEs and were sent a pre- and post-survey for completion. Hosted on Zoom in June 2021, each circuit comprised six stations, assessing history taking and communication skills only, in Care of the Older Person, Dermatology, Gynaecology, Paediatrics, Psychiatry and Urology. Results: Two hundred and sixty-six Year 5 students (n=354) participated in the virtual mock OSCEs, with 84 (32%) students completing both surveys. While a statistically significant increase in preparedness was demonstrated, there was no difference in overall confidence levels. In contrast, between specialties, a statistically significant increase in confidence levels was seen in all specialties barring Psychiatry. Despite half of the participants highlighting how the format did not sufficiently represent the summative OSCEs, all expressed interest in having virtual mock OSCEs incorporated into the undergraduate programme. Conclusion: The findings of this study suggest that virtual mock OSCEs have a role in preparing medical students for their summative exams. While this was not reflected in their overall confidence levels, this may be due to a lack of clinical exposure and higher anxiety levels among this cohort of students. Although virtual OSCEs cannot replicate the "in-person" experience, considering the logistical advantages, further research is required on how these sessions can be developed, to support the traditional format of face-to-face mock OSCEs within the undergraduate programme.
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Background: The study aimed to assess burnout, resilience, and levels of depression, anxiety, stress and fear among community pharmacists during the pandemic, and examine if fear of COVID-19 is associated with these outcomes of interest. Methods: A cross-sectional survey of community pharmacists in Qatar was conducted. Pharmacists' burnout was measured by the Maslach Burnout Inventory: Human Services Survey for Medical Personnel (MBI-HSS™ for MP-Mindgarden). Resilience was assessed using the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale-10 (CD-RISC-10). Depression, anxiety, and stress were measured by the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-21). Fear of COVID-19 was assessed by the Fear of COVID-19 Scale (FCV-19S). Results: 256 respondents completed the survey and were included in the final study analysis (response rate: 42.7%). Overall, participants reported a moderate level of burnout as illustrated in the mean scores of the three burnout dimensions; 20.54 (SD = 12.37) for emotional exhaustion, 6.76 (SD = 6.22) for depersonalization, and 36.57 (SD = 9.95) for personal accomplishment. Moreover, depression, anxiety and stress were reported by 44.8%, 53.2% and 25.4% of particiants respectively. Participants had shown moderate resilience (mean score: 27.64 (SD = 8.31)) and their mean score fear of COVID19 was 15.67 (SD = 6.54). Fear of COVID-19 was a statistically significant and an independent predictor of depression, anxiety, and stress levels. Conclusions: The pharmacists experienced moderate burnout but moderate resilience, which indicates their potential to overcome difficulties. Future interventions at the personal, national and organizational levels are required to enhance the pharmacists' wellbeing by decreasing stress, improving self-efficacy and resilience, and preventing burnout.
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BackgroundTo identify blood donors eligible to donate Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) Convalescent Plasma (CCP), a large blood center began testing for antibodies to SARS-CoV-2, the etiologic agent of COVID-19. We report the seroprevalence of total immunoglobulin directed against the S1 spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 in US blood donors. MethodsUnique non-CCP donor sera from June 1-July 31, 2020 were tested with the Ortho VITROS Anti-SARS-CoV-2 total immunoglobulin assay (positive: signal-to-cutoff (S/C) [≥]1). Donor age, sex, race/ethnicity, ABO/RhD, education, and experience were compared to June and July 2019. Multivariate regressions were conducted to identify demographics associated with the presence of antibodies and with S/C values. ResultsUnique donors (n=252,882) showed an overall seroprevalence of 1.83% in June (1.37%) and July (2.26%), with the highest prevalence in northern New Jersey (7.3%). In a subset of donors with demographic information (n=189,565), higher odds of antibody reactivity were associated with non-Hispanic Native American/Alaskan (NH-NAA/A) and Black (NH-B), and Hispanic (H) race/ethnicity, age 18-64, middle school or lesser education, blood Group A, and never or non-recent donor status. In positive donors (n=2,831), antibody signal was associated with male sex, race/ethnicity (NH-NAA/A, NH-B and H) and geographic location. ConclusionsSeroprevalence remains low in US blood donors but varies significantly by region. Temporal trends in reactivity may be used to gauge the effectiveness of public health measures. Before generalizing these data from healthy donors to the general population however, rates must be corrected for false positive test results among low prevalence test subjects and adjusted to match the wider demography.
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BACKGROUND: Medical education is facing great challenges and uncertainties amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: This article aims to provide tips that can provide a guide for medical education leaders to coordinate crisis management referring to the Egyptian context. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This work was done using a reflection on the COVID-19 response by Egyptian universities and analysis of such responses. RESULTS: Medical Education Institutions are required to build a taskforce team for crisis management. These should be committed to supporting sudden online education transition, academic support, and the psychological well-being of students, staff members, health care professionals, paramedics, and faculty administration. As the situation evolves, the taskforce has to monitor the challenges and provide appropriate plans, guidance, and solutions. Leaders in medical education have a crucial role in response to the pandemic crisis in securing a successful educational process while ensuring the mental and psychological well-being of the stakeholders. CONCLUSION: Crisis management is the skill of the future and more investment needs to be placed in designing crisis response and in enabling universities to accommodate this response.
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BACKGROUND: Several institutions adopted innovative approaches to ensure continued learning for their students during the COVID-19 pandemic. All curricular innovations should undergo curriculum evaluation; hence, the objective of this paper was to share the salient features of evaluation using faculty and student's feedback on curricular adaptations implemented through digital transformation in a Medical School in Arabian Gulf during the COVID-19 pandemic, using a structured questionnaire. METHODOLOGY: After getting informed consent, feedback about acceptability and limitations regarding various aspects of curricular adaptations was obtained from students and faculty, using a structured and validated questionnaire. The response rate from faculty and students was 90% and 60%, respectively. The qualitative responses were analyzed using thematic analysis. RESULTS: About 97% agreed that Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment, ZOOM, and Examsoft platforms were effective for curriculum delivery and assessment. 85% agreed that they were able to maintain online interactivity and 92% conveyed their willingness to continue to use these digital innovations even after the end of pandemic. "Lack of interactivity," "missed clinical training," "live sessions were more engaging than recorded ones" were the prominent themes emerged out of thematic analysis. All faculty and students expressed concern over the lack of clinical training involving real patients. All of them expressed appreciation to the university and faculty for their enormous efforts. CONCLUSION: Innovative ways should be considered to start clinical teaching with real patients, during pandemic. The learning outcomes of digital learning should be validated across all institutions. New indicators related to "digital learning" should be considered for accreditation of medical schools.
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Urinary schistosomiasis caused by Schistosoma haematobium constitutes a major public health problem in many tropical and sub-tropical countries. This study was conducted to evaluate circulating cathodic antigen cassette test and haematuria strip test for detection of S. haematobium in urine samples and to evaluate their screening performance among the study population. Microscopy was used as a gold standard. A total of 600 urine samples were examined by microscopy for detection of S. haematobium eggs, screened for microhaematuria using Self-Stik reagent strips and screened for circulating cathodic antigen (CCA) using the urine-CCA cassette test. The specificity of CCA, microhaematuria and macrohaematuria was 96.4, 40.6 and 31.2 % respectively while the sensitivity was 88.2, 99.3 and 100 % respectively which was statistically significant (P < 0.001). These findings suggest that using of urine-CCA cassette test in diagnosis of urinary schistosomiasis is highly specific (96.4 %) compared with the highly sensitive haematuria strip test (100 %). The degree of agreement between microscopic examination and CCA detection was 99.3 % with highly statistically significant difference (P < 0.001). The combination of two techniques could potentially use for screening and mapping of S. haematobium infection.