Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on student experiences during rural placements in Australia: findings from a national multi-centre survey

BMC Medical Education

Research

Vivian Isaac¹  Denese Playford²  Penny Allen³  Remo Ostini⁴  Priya Martin⁴  Srinivas Kondalsamy-Chennakesavan⁴  Matthew McGrail⁴  Jordan Fox⁴  Zelda Doyle⁵  Jessica Beattie⁶  Lara Fuller⁶ 

[1] College of Medicine and Public Health, Rural and Remote Health SA, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia;Rural Clinical School of Western Australia, Medical Schools of UWA and Notre Dame, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia;Rural Clinical School, College of Health and Medicine, The University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia;Rural Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine, The University of Queensland, Locked Bag 9009, 4350, Toowoomba, QLD, Australia;Rural Clinical School, School of Medicine, University of Notre Dame, Sydney, Australia;Rural Community Clinical School, School of Medicine, Deakin University, Geelong, Australia;

关键词: Rural placements;    Clinical placements;    COVID-19 pandemic;    Medical education;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12909-022-03927-1

 received in 2022-04-20, accepted in 2022-11-28,  发布年份 2022

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundThe aim of this national study was to explore the learning experiences of Australia’s medical students who trained rurally during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.MethodsA cross-sectional, national multi-centre survey was conducted in 2020, through the Federation of Rural Australian Medical Educators (FRAME). Participants were medical students who had completed an extended Rural Clinical School (RCS) training placement (≥ 12 months). A bespoke set of COVID-19 impact questions were incorporated into the annual FRAME survey, to capture COVID-19-related student experiences in 2020. Pre-pandemic (2019 FRAME survey data) comparisons were also explored.ResultsFRAME survey data were obtained from 464 students in 2020 (51.7% response rate), compared with available data from 668 students in 2019 (75.6% response rate). Most students expressed concern regarding the pandemic’s impact on the quality of their learning (80%) or missed clinical learning (58%); however, students reported being well-supported by the various learning and support strategies implemented by the RCSs across Australia. Notably, comparisons to pre-pandemic (2019) participants of the general RCS experience found higher levels of student support (strongly agree 58.9% vs 42.4%, p < 0.001) and wellbeing (strongly agree 49.6% vs 42.4%, p = 0.008) amongst the 2020 participants. Students with more than one year of RCS experience compared to one RCS year felt better supported with clinical skills learning opportunities (p = 0.015) and less affected by COVID-19 in their exam performance (p = 0.009).ConclusionsThis study has provided evidence of both the level of concern relating to learning quality as well as the positive impact of the various learning and support strategies implemented by the RCSs during the pandemic in 2020. RCSs should further evaluate the strategies implemented to identify those that are worth sustaining into the post-pandemic period.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© The Author(s) 2022

【 图 表 】

12982_2022_119_Article_IEq222.gif