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Background: COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a sudden shift to online education. PBL was one of the components that was transformed to online. The aim of the present study was to investigate the impact of the sudden shift to virtual PBL during COVID-19 pandemic in achieving the intended learning objectives of the PBL and to explore the students' perception of the virtual versus traditional PBL. Methods: This is a retrospective study that was conducted in the college of medicine, King Saud University. We compared the perception of third year students who participated in traditional face-to-face PBL in 2019-2020 and in the virtual PBL in 2020-2021. We compared the performance of the students in the traditional face-to-face and in virtual PBL. An online survey was distributed from October to December 2021. The survey contained 7 sections. Each section included several questions comparing virtual and traditional PBL in that aspect. Results: Out of 284 third year medical students, 124 students responded with a response rate of 43.66%. More than half of the students (n = 77, 63%) felt significantly motivated to actively participate in PBL sessions in a virtual learning environment, motivated to learn and support group work and gained critical thinking skills (mean = 3.54 ± 0.12 versus 3.59 ± 0.14, p < 0.001). The majority of students (n = 82, 66%) felt significantly more satisfied about their learning during the virtual PBL versus traditional PBL (mean = 3.48 ± 0.42 versus 3.91 ± 0.59, p < 0.001). There was no significant difference in the students' performance in traditional versus virtual PBL (mean = 4.77 ± 0.22 versus 4.79 ± 0.29, p = 0.2). Conclusion: The results of this study showed that students were significantly more satisfied with the experience in the virtual versus traditional PBL. Medical students' performances in virtual PBL were comparable to the traditional face-to-face approach.
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Objective: We hypothesized that the early introduction of clinical skills (CS) would help students to develop and apply clinical skills appropriately during the clinical years. Evaluating the perceptions of medical students and faculty regarding the early introduction of CS teaching and its effectiveness are important. Methods: The CS curriculum was designed by integration with the system-oriented problem-based curriculum in years 1 and 2 at the College of Medicine, KSU, from January 2019 to December 2019. Students and faculty questionnaires were also designed. The impact of CS teaching effectiveness was assessed by comparing OSCE results for year-3 students who received early CS sessions with those who did not. The total number of student respondents was 461/598; and 259 (56.2%) were male and 202 (43.8%) were female. The first- and second-year respondents were 247 (53.6%) and 214 (46.4%), respectively. The number of faculty respondents was 35/43. Results: The majority of students and faculty were satisfied that the early introduction of CS increased student confidence when dealing with real patients, provided the opportunity to master skills, consolidated theoretical knowledge and clinical skills, motivated learning, and increased the enthusiasm of students to become doctors. The third-year students who received CS teaching in years 1 and 2 (during 2017-2018 and 2018-2019) showed a significant increase in mean grades (p value; 0.00) in OSCE tests during their courses in surgery (from 32.6 to 37.4 for females; 35.2 to 35.7 for males) and medicine (31.2-34.1 for females; 34.3 to 37.7 for males), respectively, when compared to students who did not receive CS teaching during the academic year 2016-2017 (in surgery, 22.2 and 23.2; in medicine 25.1 and 24.2) for females and males respectively. Conclusion: Early exposure of medical students to CS is a positive intervention that bridges the gap between basic sciences and clinical practice.
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Background and objectives The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has challenged healthcare systems worldwide. Various studies have revealed the negative impact of the pandemic on the education and mental health of medical students and residents. In this study, we aimed to explore the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on medical interns' educational experience, clinical practice, and mental health. We also engage in a discussion on the compensatory methods that have been adopted to improve medical interns' learning processes during the ongoing pandemic. Methods This cross-sectional survey-based study was conducted at the King Saud University Medical City (KSUMC) in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) from March to October 2020. The participants consisted of medical interns. The survey collected information on participants' demographics, training, and the educational and psychological impact of the pandemic. Results The survey was distributed to 480 medical interns, of whom 345 (71.8%) participated. Most of our sample (75.6%) believed that the COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted their cumulative experience. Regarding the pandemic's impact on training and education, it was found that the emergency department rotation was the most affected rotation (60.3%). The majority of the participants (55.9%) believed that all tracks have received equal education and the volume of patients seen by interns decreased by 91.9%. As for the compensatory methods, 73.3% reported the utilization of remote platforms. Regarding the pandemic's mental health impact, 36% believed that it has affected their mental health, where increased stress levels were noticed in 47.8% of participants. Statistical significance was found in both Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) and General Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) scores, which indicated that during the pandemic, 20.6% of the participants suffered from depression, and 13.9% had moderate to severe anxiety. Conclusions This study highlights the negative educational and psychological impact of COVID-19 on medical interns. With emerging infectious diseases on the rise, recognizing the impact of COVID-19 on medical interns is vital to improving interns' educational experiences and mental health during future crises.
