The GI Simulated Clinic in the Era of COVID-19: a Comparison of Virtual to In-Person Delivery

C K Ferris; D M Williams; E Shen; J M Jackson; J T Bruggen

doi:10.1007/s40670-021-01468-8

The GI Simulated Clinic in the Era of COVID-19: a Comparison of Virtual to In-Person Delivery

Med Sci Educ. 2021 Nov 19;32(1):75-78. doi: 10.1007/s40670-021-01468-8. eCollection 2022 Feb.

Authors

C K Ferris¹, D M Williams¹, E Shen¹, J M Jackson¹, J T Bruggen¹

Affiliation

¹ Department of Internal Medicine, Wake Forest School of Medicine, 475 Vine St, Winston-Salem, NC, 27101 USA.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted medical education; thus, there is a need to better understand the effectiveness of virtual learning compared to in-person learning. This is a single-center, cross-sectional study of first-year medical students who attended a gastroenterology simulated clinic activity in person in 2018 and 2019 or virtually in 2020. Participants were surveyed on the activity's relevance and effectiveness. Students' assessment of the virtual clinic's effectiveness and relevance was not significantly different from the in-person version of the activity. In addition, most students rated the virtual clinic as effective for learning about telemedicine.

Keywords: COVID-19; Simulated activity; Telemedicine; Virtual learning.