Advantages and disadvantages of distance education in teaching clinical discipline to students of the medical university

The challenges of society have made adjustments to the medical education system of Ukraine. In the conditions of the pandemic of the coronavirus infection COVID-19 and the introduced martial law throughout the territory of Ukraine, distance learning (DL) turned out to be the only possible form of the educational process. The purpose of the study was to study the peculiarities of teaching the discipline "Propaedeutics of Pediatrics" in the conditions of the National Academy of Sciences. The process of DL at the Department of Propaedeutics of Childhood Diseases of the Dnipro State Medical University (DSMU) took place using the MOODLE electronic portal, the Google Meet video service, the YouTube platform, the website and the electronic magazine of the Dnipro State Medical University. An anonymous survey of 210 third-year students was conducted regarding their attitude and degree of satisfaction with the educational process at the Department of Propaedeutics of Childhood Diseases using educational distance technologies. As the results showed, the majority of the interviewed students are completely satisfied with the process of DL. However, when choosing a form of education, preference is still given to the classroom format of education. Among the advantages of DL, students noted the saving of time and financial costs for moving between buildings and clinical bases, the comfort of studying in a home environment, the possibility of studying at any convenient time, the availability of information resources, and the possibility of re-processing complex material. However, the biggest drawback of the DL was the lack of opportunity to work with the patient and master practical skills. So, DL, like any other method of teaching and learning, has its advantages and disadvantages. But currently existing technologies of medical education with the help of modern digital platforms, high-quality content filling of educational web resources, introduction of an effective system of quality control of acquired knowledge make it possible to adapt to the new realities of the educational process and ensure consistently high quality of medical education