gms | German Medical Science

Introduction/aim: In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic drastically changed medical education delivery worldwide. While most medical schools transitioned their curricula to virtual learning environments, medical students from the University Basel, Switzerland provided volunteer support to frontline staff in the local Corona Testing and Triage Center (TTC). They assumed the responsibilities of supervised administrative work, medical history taking, evaluating clinical risk scores, measuring vital signs, and performing swabs. The purposes of this study were:

1.

to explore how working in this unprecedented learning environment shaped medical students’ perceptions of their learning and professional development; and

2.

to inform how to integrate medical students into future initiative during a public health crisis.

Methods: Following the constructivist grounded theory methodology, we interviewed 21 medical students who worked on the frontlines at the TTC. These students represented a diverse sample across all academic years. The collected data were analyzed iteratively through a constant comparative procedure to develop themes until we reached theoretical sufficiency.

Results: Students reported numerous benefits from their frontline assignment. Besides major knowledge gain about hygiene measures and personal protective equipment (PPE), a significant improvement was noticed in the development of non-technical skills (e.g., communication, history taking). These results were achieved by repetitive practice and, most notably, by observing peers and supervisors. All students valued the good working climate, the inter-professional teamwork and the flat hierarchy. This exceptional working atmosphere can be explained by a strong team spirit caused by the virus as a common enemy, and a shared vision to “fight the enemy”. Beyond that, the TTC was described as a place for networking with future colleagues and other medical staff. While shifting medical education to virtual learning made some students lose their sense of professional identity (e.g., “I didn't feel like a medical student at all. Because you just sit at home in front of your laptop, and it doesn't feel justified to entitle yourself that way.” [17]), frontline work also provided reassurance to students that they chose the right profession (e.g., “It was such a confirmation that I am in the right place professionally.” [P21]).

Discussion & conclusions: Our results suggest that involving students in a well-defined and monitored setting on the frontlines during a pandemic offered several benefits, which included availing the students of the unprecedented learning environment by facilitating their development of non-technical skills and reinforcing their professional identity. The current findings may encourage medical education leaders and heath administrators across the globe to promote medical student engagement in frontline care during future health crises.