Letter Postgrad Med J: first published as 10.1136/postgradmedj-2021-139771 on 26 February 2021. Downloaded from Competency-based medical completely simulates on-site teaching in the ward. The instructor conducts the phys- education for postgraduates ical examination. The students observe the in the minimally invasive physical examination and reactions. They surgery department during can ask the teacher to perform physical examinations of relevant parts or organs; the COVID-19 pandemic therefore, the students may collect and summarise clinical data for analysis, and make corresponding diagnoses and treat- The pandemic of COVID-19 has severely ment plans. The teacher will comprehen- disrupted everyone’s lives. The closure of sively evaluate the students' performance, universities has made education uncertain. which may enable students to improve The same is true for medical education.1 their diagnosis and treatment capabilities Figure 1 Training on the simple box. The more the pandemic spread, the more gradually. This way, the students can still feel ‘immersed’ at home and fully partici- we realised the importance of medical a tablet to assemble a simple training box pate in patients' clinical activities. talent. Therefore, it is imperative to ensure with little extra cost(figure 1). The laparo- Traditional medical knowledge learning the continuity of medical education. scopic equipment including needle holder is mainly based on classroom teaching. Since the training of clinical postgradu- and forceps from the training centre of the Teachers play a crucial role in the class- ates focuses on contact with patients, the hospital are sent to students' homes via room; it is more direct and easy to observe diagnosis and treatment of patients, and express delivery. For those without lapa- students' learning status at any time during the implementation of various clinical roscopic equipment, you can buy them on classroom teaching. However, due to the operations, they are more affected by the the shopping website at lower price (about impact of the pandemic, all offline courses pandemic. Therefore, we just try to find US$30 for a piece of equipment). After have been stopped and online methods new teaching methods to ensure the culti- the pandemic, you can use them to build have been adopted. Therefore, higher vation of clinical talents. you own training centre. Then, instructors requirements have been put forward for A recent article by Crespo et al titled guide them through a remote connection online teaching. Teachers need to make ‘Medical students and COVID-19: lessons and conduct testing to train at home. Also, more preparations before teaching and learnt from the 2020 pandemic’ elabo- through the video signal transmission, the give students preparatory tasks as prelimi- rates the challenges faced by both medical real-time video images of the students' nary guidance for the courses to be learnt. students and teachers during COVID-19 exercises are transmitted to a tutor’s Teachers must be proficient in the online and experiences and lessons learnt from computer screen so that the tutor can teaching model, including course design, the pandemic.2 The education modes and make immediate comments. Sometimes, the selection of teaching content, inter- methods should be adjusted to minimise we invite several experts to comment at active methods, and the evaluation of the impact of the pandemic. The Accred- the same time(figure 2). As a result, we learning effects, and every detail must itation Council for Graduate Medical can see clearly the students’ improve- be meticulous. In order to make teachers Education3 proposed six core competen- ment of laparoscopic skills. Furthermore, better prepared for this new form of cies that clinicians need to master: patient the instructor can select typical patients, virtual learning, the academic affairs care, medical knowledge, practice-based transmit the real-time images of the oper- department of the hospital has done learning and improvement, interpersonal ation to the students during the opera- http://pmj.bmj.com/ targeted training, in addition, clinical communication and skills, professionalism tion, and give real-time explanations and departments give corresponding teaching 4 answer the students’ questions at any time and system-based practice. During the guidance considering the characteristics of so that the students can participate in the pandemic, students were unable to rotate different department. operation ‘immersively’. internships in wards and could not directly For postgraduates in minimally inva- The professionalism of clinicians is an perform clinical operations, which greatly sive surgery, training minimally invasive essential part of the professionalisation of affected the cultivation of the various abil- and laparoscopic techniques are essen- medical staff. Professionalisation means on October 1, 2021 by guest. Protected copyright. ities of surgical graduate students and put tial. Before the pandemic, virtual simula- the ordinary standards of competence and forward new requirements for teachers. tion operating system and a laparoscopic moral values that clinicians promise to E-learning play an important role in training box used to train laparoscopic maintain in the profession and what the restoring the learning process in hospital techniques such as incisions, suturing and public and patients can expect of them.5 to the greatest extent and establishing a knot tying. Students can complete simple new model for the cultivation of graduate laparoscopic surgery such as laparoscopic students’ core competencies during the cholecystectomy through the virtual simu- pandemic. lation operating system so that they can Patient care mainly relies on the entire smoothly complete the learning curve. diagnosis and treatment process for Due to the pandemic, students cannot patients. Using online resources to culti- train on the virtual simulation system. vate the graduates' abilities to diagnose For the particularities of laparoscopy, and treat patients while staying at home the techniques are challenging to learn at is very important. After obtaining patient home. After repeated testing, we designed consent, a web conference through the a simple training system for laparoscopy. network video connection let students The system uses simple materials like old conduct ‘face-to- face’ consultations with cardboard box to make the training box’s patients via ‘cloud consultation’, which shell and uses a camera of a cellphone or Figure 2 Instructors' guiding.
Postgrad Med J Month 2021 Vol 0 No 0 1 Letter Postgrad Med J: first published as 10.1136/postgradmedj-2021-139771 on 26 February 2021. Downloaded from
The cultivation of physicians’ profes- analysis of the students’ pronunciation Ethics approval The study received ethical approval sionalism often requires a long process, and intonation, language ability, on-the- from Ethics Committee of the First Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University. Participation in the and the teaching of theories is often not spot response, humanistic care, and so study was voluntary and all participants voluntarily sufficient. Teachers are required to grad- on, to help students improve rapidly. participated in this study and provided written informed ually guide students in clinical activi- To sum up, affected by the large-scale consent. All methods were performed in accordance ties and take the lead to transform from outbreak of the new coronavirus, clinical with Declaration of Helsinki and other relevant guidelines and regulations.ID 20200110. imitating to real. Although students stayed medicine postgraduates’ training is facing ： away from hospitals and patients during great difficulties. Although measures Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; internally peer reviewed. the pandemic, the spirit of great love taken to combat the pandemic are one of displayed by most medical workers during the most important objective to control This article is made freely available for use in the pandemic is touching. During the fight accordance with BMJ’s website terms and conditions the spread of the disease, if postgraduates’ for the duration of the covid-19 pandemic or until against the pandemic, medical workers training becomes stagnant or the quality is otherwise determined by BMJ. You may use, download worldwide were not afraid of danger, low, it will directly affect students’ future and print the article for any lawful, non-commercial charged forward, and contributed to the careers. New teaching methods based on purpose (including text and data mining) provided that all copyright notices and trade marks are retained. professionalism. With the best annota- ability training ensure the quality of post- tions, students can truly feel the medical graduates’ training during the pandemic. © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2021. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. staff ’s noble professional ethics and We should make sure that the training of selfless dedication so as to have a higher medical talents is not left behind during the yearning for their future careers. COVID-19 pandemic and provide a guar- Medical students need to have good antee that students can start their careers To cite Meng X, Hao C, Tan H, et al. Postgrad Med J interpersonal and communication skills smoothly in the future and continue to Epub ahead of print: [please include Day Month Year]. doi:10.1136/postgradmedj-2021-139771 to communicate with patients according convey talent to hospitals. to their condition as future medical Accepted 4 February 2021 practitioners. Under the influence of Xianzhi Meng ,1 Chenjun Hao,1 Hongtao Tan,1 Postgrad Med J 2021;0:1–2. the pandemic, students cannot commu- Bei Sun,1 Dongbo Xue,1 Hong Bo2 doi:10.1136/postgradmedj-2021-139771 nicate with patients face-to-face, which 1 Department of General Surgery, First Affiliated Hospital ORCID iD affects communication skills. To develop of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, Heilongjiang, Xianzhi Meng http://orcid. org/0000- 0002-1125- 9312 communication skills in this extraor- China 2Department of Educational Affairs, First Affiliated dinary period, after receiving patient REFERENCES consent, we broadcast the communica- Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, Heilongjiang, China 1 Lucey CR, Johnston SC. The transformational tion between doctors and patients live effects of COVID-19 on medical education. JAMA through web conferences to the students Correspondence to Dr Hong Bo, Department of 2020;324:1033. so that they can communicate with Educational Affairs, First Affiliated Hospital of Harbin 2 de Andres Crespo M, Claireaux H, Handa AI. Medical Medical University, Harbin, Heilongjiang, China; students and COVID-19: lessons learnt from the patients in real time. Before communi- bohong247@ 163.com 2020 pandemic. Postgrad Med J 2020. doi:10.1136/ cating, we introduce the patient’s data Contributors XM, CH, HT and HB: design and drafting postgradmedj-2020-138559. [Epub ahead of print: 11 Aug 2020]. to the student. It is necessary for each of manuscript, acquisition of information. BS, DX and 3 Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. student to do a detailed review, commu- HB: editing, literature review, critical revisions. All Manual of policies and procedures. Available: https:// authors read and approved the final version of the nicate with the instructor, understand www.acgme. org/Portals/ 0/PDFs /ab_ ACGMEPol iciesPro article. the main diagnosis and treatment of the edures.pdf [Accessed 23 Sep 2017]. http://pmj.bmj.com/ patient,. After the communication, the Funding This work was supported Department of 4 Kang D, Siddiqui S, Weiss H, et al. Are we meeting instructor comments on the communi- Education, Heilongjiang Province,China. (Grant No. ACGME core competencies? A systematic review of cation process and gives timely feed- GBB1318068 and SJGY20190420). literature on international surgical rotations. Am J Surg 2018;216:782–6. Competing interests None declared. back. The teacher pays attention to all 5 Shi W, Jiao Y. The COVID-19 pandemic: a live class on the details, including the comprehensive Patient consent for publication Not required. medical professionalism. QJM 2020:hcaa157. on October 1, 2021 by guest. Protected copyright.
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