Telemedicine Education for Third- and Fourth-Year Medical Students During a Pandemic

Abstract

Program Goals Telemedicine has revolutionized a new wave of education during the COVID-19 pandemic thathas displaced medical students from learning during their clinical years in hospitals and outpatient clinics Thegoal of this program evaluation is to analyze telemedicine education in an outpatient pediatric clinic setting tosee how this way of learning is improving and maintaining education during difficult and unconventional timescompared to the standard remote didactics currently being held Evaluation The Zoom Meeting application isused to host a setting of medical students with medical providers in one virtual space This application isutilized on a large iPad in a clinic where the medical provider will bring the medical students virtually into eachpatient room Medical students are observing how to solicit a history, perform physical exams, communicate with both parents and patients, and create differential diagnoses and management plans for eachindividualized patient experience For three days out of the week, medical students are experiencing livevirtual patient encounters and formulating differential diagnoses and management plans with the medical provider as they would in a real physical outpatient clinic setting Various medical providers includingpediatricians, pediatric-trained physician assistants and nurse practitioners also conducted interactivedidactics using the Socratic method on pertinent pediatric topics for two days out of the week Medicalstudents also learned from observing how the providers engaged with various subspecialists via cellphone ore-mail to arrange specialty care efficiently Overall, medical students were more engaged and focused with thetelemedicine option of learning rather than the standard virtual didactics Discussion Since the beginning ofthe COVID-19 pandemic, there was widespread uncertainty about how to manage third- and fourth-yearmedical students' education as they were forced to pause their hospital and clinic experiences Medicalschools across the United States implemented Zoom meetings hosting didactics, but telemedicine involvinglive patient encounters has not been generally executed as a remote option of learning and continuingeducation From positive feedback and constructive criticism with fellow students, it has been found thatutilizing telemedicine as a way of continuing education is more benecial given the circumstances andrestrictions ensued from the COVID-19 pandemic The main downfall we saw was physical exams could not bedirectly performed, but they were observed, and pertinent positives were discussed Even after the restrictionscause by COVID-19 pandemic experience, telemedicine education could continue to provide a uniqueopportunity to unite medical students with medical providers that they would not ordinarily have the chanceto work with