RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Medical education is facing great challenges and uncertainties amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: This article aims to provide tips that can provide a guide for medical education leaders to coordinate crisis management referring to the Egyptian context. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This work was done using a reflection on the COVID-19 response by Egyptian universities and analysis of such responses. RESULTS: Medical Education Institutions are required to build a taskforce team for crisis management. These should be committed to supporting sudden online education transition, academic support, and the psychological well-being of students, staff members, health care professionals, paramedics, and faculty administration. As the situation evolves, the taskforce has to monitor the challenges and provide appropriate plans, guidance, and solutions. Leaders in medical education have a crucial role in response to the pandemic crisis in securing a successful educational process while ensuring the mental and psychological well-being of the stakeholders. CONCLUSION: Crisis management is the skill of the future and more investment needs to be placed in designing crisis response and in enabling universities to accommodate this response.
RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Several institutions adopted innovative approaches to ensure continued learning for their students during the COVID-19 pandemic. All curricular innovations should undergo curriculum evaluation; hence, the objective of this paper was to share the salient features of evaluation using faculty and student's feedback on curricular adaptations implemented through digital transformation in a Medical School in Arabian Gulf during the COVID-19 pandemic, using a structured questionnaire. METHODOLOGY: After getting informed consent, feedback about acceptability and limitations regarding various aspects of curricular adaptations was obtained from students and faculty, using a structured and validated questionnaire. The response rate from faculty and students was 90% and 60%, respectively. The qualitative responses were analyzed using thematic analysis. RESULTS: About 97% agreed that Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment, ZOOM, and Examsoft platforms were effective for curriculum delivery and assessment. 85% agreed that they were able to maintain online interactivity and 92% conveyed their willingness to continue to use these digital innovations even after the end of pandemic. "Lack of interactivity," "missed clinical training," "live sessions were more engaging than recorded ones" were the prominent themes emerged out of thematic analysis. All faculty and students expressed concern over the lack of clinical training involving real patients. All of them expressed appreciation to the university and faculty for their enormous efforts. CONCLUSION: Innovative ways should be considered to start clinical teaching with real patients, during pandemic. The learning outcomes of digital learning should be validated across all institutions. New indicators related to "digital learning" should be considered for accreditation of medical schools.
