Social distancing in advanced emergency medicine courses - can it work?

Introduction: The corona virus pandemic rendered most live education this spring term impossible. Many classes were converted into e-learning formats. But not all learning content and outcomes can readily be transferred into digital space. Project outline: Emergency medicine teaching relies on hands-on simulation training. Therefore, we had to devise a catalogue of measures, that would enable us to offer simulation training for Advanced Life Support. Summary of work: Strict hygienic rules including disinfection of hands, wearing personal protective gear at all times and disinfection of equipment were implemented. Group size and number of staff was reduced, introducing fixed student teams accompanied by the same teacher. Only large rooms with good ventilation were used. Under these conditions, we were allowed to carry out core Advanced Life Support simulations. Other content had to be transferred to online platforms. Discussion: Heeding general hygiene advise and using personal protective gear, a central cluster of simulations was carried out. Students and staff adhered to rules without complaint. No infections within faculty or student body were reported. Conclusion: It seems feasible to conduct core simulations under strict hygienic protocol.

Can we adequately teach ethics and ethical decision making via distant learning? A pandemic pilot.

The Corona virus pandemic rendered most live education this spring term impossible. Other formats and new ideas were needed to offer students the opportunity to learn unchanged learning content and outcomes. To replace our module on ethics and ethical decision making in emergency medicine with simulation patients we developed an e-learning module consisting of a case, trigger questions and literature for self-study. This was followed by a Microsoft Teams seminar in which the students discussed their questions in subgroups on the basis of their reading and developed a team product they then presented to the other team. Students valued this module as enabling a safe space for their beliefs and views. A vast majority deemed the topics as relevant, two thirds would retake the seminar. Despite a productive online discourse, this format should not be used as sole module under normal conditions since it lacks the (simulation) patient interaction but it can prove to be a valuable addendum to live teaching.