Background: The coronavirus-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic continues to impose a significant impact on medical education. We aimed to describe the clinical learning experience of undergraduate medical students undertaking internal medicine clerkship during the COVID-19 pandemic at Makerere University, Uganda.
Methods: A descriptive, cross-sectional study among medical students in clinical years of study pursuing the Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery undergraduate degree program was conducted in November 2020. Only 3rd (junior clerks) and 5th (senior clerks) year medical students whose internal medicine clerkships were interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic were studied.
Results: Data of 188 (95%) eligible clinical year students; junior (101, 54.0%) and senior (86, 46.0%) were analysed. Median age was 24 (range: 22– 42) years. Majority (70.1%) were male and Ugandan nationals (94.1%). Sixty-four (30.3%) students reported inadequate personal protective equipment, 152 (81.7%) felt at risk of contracting COVID-19, and 127 (67.9%) said it was difficult to observe COVID-19 standard operating procedures. Twenty-two students (11.9%) were discouraged from pursuing a career in internal medicine. Overall, most students reported good or excellent clinical experience pre-COVID-19 era compared to during the COVID-19 era (4.0 vs 3.5, p< 0.0001). Senior clerks significantly believed that the time allocated for the rotation was adequate (p< 0.0001) and they were able to complete their study objectives (p< 0.001), compared to the junior clerks. Senior clerks believed that learning was difficult when combined with junior clerks (p=0.013). About half of the students (51.4%, n=95) reported clinical teaching should remain as it was in the pre-COVID-19 era.
Conclusion: The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significantly negative effect on the clinical learning experience of the students. There is need to review the current teaching and learning methods to suit teaching and learning during pandemics of highly infectious diseases to ensure safe and effective learning experience.



中文翻译：

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COVID-19 大流行中的内科实习：乌干达马克雷雷大学本科医学生临床学习经验的横断面研究

背景： 2019 年冠状病毒 (COVID-19) 大流行继续对医学教育产生重大影响。我们旨在描述在乌干达马克雷雷大学 COVID-19 大流行期间从事内科实习的本科医学生的临床学习经验。
方法： 2020 年 11 月，对攻读医学学士和外科学士本科学位课程的临床医学生进行了一项描述性横断面研究。仅 3 年级（初级文员）和 5 年级（高级文员）医学生研究了他们的内科见习因 COVID-19 大流行而中断。
结果：188 名 (95%) 符合条件的临床年学生的数据；对初级 (101, 54.0%) 和高级 (86, 46.0%) 进行了分析。中位年龄为 24 岁（范围：22-42）岁。大多数（70.1%）是男性和乌干达国民（94.1%）。64 名 (30.3%) 学生报告个人防护装备不足，152 名 (81.7%) 名学生感到有感染 COVID-19 的风险，127 名 (67.9%) 名学生表示难以遵守 COVID-19 标准操作程序。22 名学生 (11.9%) 不鼓励从事内科工作。总体而言，与 COVID-19 时代相比，大多数学生在 COVID-19 时代之前报告了良好或出色的临床经验（4.0 对 3.5，p<0.0001）。高级职员明显认为分配给轮换的时间足够（p<0.0001）并且他们能够完成他们的学习目标（p<0.001），与初级文员相比。高级职员认为与初级职员一起学习会很困难（p=0.013）。大约一半的学生（51.4%，n=95）报告说临床教学应该保持在 COVID-19 之前的时代。
结论： COVID-19 大流行对学生的临床学习体验产生了显着的负面影响。需要重新审视当前的教学方法，以适应高传染性疾病大流行期间的教学和学习，以确保安全有效的学习体验。