Perception about Virtual Endocrine Training among Endocrine Residents

Abstract

Background: COVID-19 has jolted the world order with the disruption of education at all levels. Present disruption in medical education has opened doors to virtual platforms. There is a dearth of studies, evaluating the perception of medical students about virtual learning. We have conducted a cross-sectional study to understand the perception of endocrinology residents with regard to virtual training. Materials and methods: This study is a cross-sectional online survey done in April 2020. A total of 46 endocrine residents, participated in this survey. Total 05 questions were asked in this survey, whether they believe virtual endocrine training is required in present COVID-19 times or not, the format of training, method of teaching, preferred topics requiring coverage, and online assessment. Results: All 46 (100%) participants agreed with the need for virtual endocrine teaching. Of the total 46 participants, their seniority of endocrine training was 1st year ( n = 21, 45.65%), 2nd year ( n = 17, 36.96%), and 3rd year ( n = 8, 17.39%). Most preferred topics were endocrine imaging ( n = 9, 19.57%) and nuclear medicine ( n = 9, 19.57%) with pituitary as least preferred ( n = 1, 2.17%). Of the total, 50% of residents wanted virtual faculty lectures, 47.8% opted for virtual clinical case discussions. Out of 46, 97.8% of residents wanted virtual platform informal assessment of students. There was no statistical significance between the choice of a topic among different endocrine residents according to the seniority of their training. Conclusion: Our study has shown that there is a felt need for virtual training among endocrinology residents in India. Imaging and nuclear studies are the specific topics that endocrine students want to learn through faculty lectures, irrespective of seniority as endocrine students. This study can be used while planning virtual endocrine curriculums in the future.