My name is Clare Bennett and I’m a second year medical student. For our SSC2B project, a group of us have been reflecting on our experience as medical students over the last year. I have been thinking specifically about how lockdown and online learning has affected our potential as future doctors
As medical students, it is important that we learn how to interact with patients. Normally, ICP (Introduction to Clinical Practise) would allow us to achieve this during our second year. We are placed in a GP practice and get to interview patients face to face. As well as this we learn how to examine patients in person. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic we have lost this opportunity, at no fault of the University.
In attempt to replicate this, we have been having online sessions with our ICP tutors. These have involved history taking and explanation and advice around core diseases. Despite the effort that has been put into our online education, we have missed out substantially. We have been told that we won’t be taught how to take blood this year, instead we will learn this in fourth year. This may have caused a huge amount of anxiety for medical students. A large amount of our education is not only learning the pathophysiology but it is developing clinical-skills, communication and becoming comfortable with patients. Has our limited contact with patients affected our education? Will we be worse doctors because of it?
Learning key skills during lockdown
The Covid-19 pandemic has not only affected medical students across the country, it was has affected doctors in all professions around the world. With a GP (General Practitioner) as a mother, I have witnessed this first hand. The transition to ‘online’ has adjusted how she practices.
GP’s had to adapt to telephone consultations and patients sending in images of rashes instead of seeing them in person. As a doctor, learning how to adapt and overcome adversities is important. We have learnt a valuable lesson by experiencing online learning, and will have developed skills from it that are important for the future. For example, taking a history over a video consultation and having the ability to build up a good rapport in this manner will be a crucial skill for the future. We have learnt to adapt to the situation and develop resilience as a result, a key trait as a doctor.
Overall, despite the negatives of online learning, I believe we will have also benefitted from the past year and have gained valuable skills we otherwise may not have learnt as medical students.
