Remote clinical training practice in the neurology internship during the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT

Background: During the current COVID-19 pandemic, offline clinical education was mandated to suspend at the neurology department of many teaching hospitals globally, yet there is insufficient evidence regarding the preferred practice and methods for online neurology intern training course.

Objective: The investigation aimed to examine whether the online neurology training course based on Small Private Online Course (SPOC) and blending learning mode can achieve a good effect and cater for interns from different medical programs and whether the learning group size affects the teaching effect.

Design: The subjects were 92 students enrolled in the neurology internship at the Second Xiangya Hospital of China from 9 March to 9 August 2020. After completing the online course, the final scores and evaluation results were compared among different groups of interns, and their preference to distinct contents of the course was analyzed. Statistical analysis was performed using the SPSS program (version 22.0).

Results: Our online course received consistent positive recognition from the interns. Ninety-nine percent of the interns recommended incorporating the online course into the conventional offline training program after the pandemic. There was no significant difference between interns from different programs concerning the final scores and course evaluation. A smaller learning group size (<15 students) could achieve a better teaching effect than a larger group size (p < 0.05). The interns preferred interactive discussions, and course contents that they can get practice and feedback from, rather than video watching and didactic lectures.

Conclusions: The online neurology intern training course based on SPOC and blending learning mode is worthy of popularization in a large student base. The teaching effect of an online intern training program may be improved by limiting the group size to less than 15 students and encouraging more interactive discussion, more practice and feedback.

KEYWORDS:

• Online clinical training
• neurology internship
• SPOC
• blending learning mode

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to all the medical students who participated in the present study.

Authors’ contributions

MH contributed to study design and data collection, MH, SGG, and XQT contributed to the analysis and interpretation of the data, MH, HNZ, and ZCT contributed to the drafting of the manuscript. YYL and SGG contributed to the revision of the manuscript. All authors gave final approval to the version of the paper being submitted.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest.

Ethical approval

This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Second Xiangya Hospital, Central South University. Informed consent was obtained in writing from all the individual participants included in the study. Participation was voluntary and anonymous.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by grants from Education and Teaching Reform Project of Central South University [2020jy165-4, MH], Youth Program of National Natural Science Foundation of China [81901306, MH], Huxiang High-Level Talent Gathering Project of Hunan Province [2019RS1011, MH], The National Natural Science Foundation of China [No. 81672225, SGG].