key: cord-0961708-4bf5curg
authors: Lee, Keng Siang; Zhang, John J.Y.
title: Letter to the Editor: 'Medical Student Concerns Relating to Neurosurgery Education During COVID-19'
date: 2020-06-12
journal: World Neurosurg
DOI: 10.1016/j.wneu.2020.06.058
sha: 6b223b4c5664408be7e160de0dfd1cbc15d63c15
doc_id: 961708
cord_uid: 4bf5curg

nan

Keng Siang Lee 1 This pandemic presents practical and logistical challenges, and concerns for patient safety. Clinical rotations are crucial elements in providing authentic patient care environments for medical students, but in the context of a pandemic, it must be recognised that students are at risk of becoming potential vectors for transmission.

Alongside the lack of COVID-19 testing, shortages of personal protective equipment, and the diminished value of hospital-based experiences (from the inevitable cancellations of clinics and elective surgeries), social distancing remains the most effective strategy in flattening the epidemiological curve, while we await the manufacture of vaccines and antiviral therapies. 3 Hospitals have suspended medical students from attending clinical attachments, and this inadvertently limits exposure to specific specialties, which potentially could have a detrimental effect on specialty applications.

In the midst of this pandemic, the timely nationwide survey by Guadix et al. has highlighted the concerns of medical students interested in neurosurgery. 4 The authors employed a nationwide survey to assess how COVID-19 has affected neurosurgical education amongst neurosurgery-minded medical students, and to identify educational interventions that might better respond to their evolving educational needs. The past decade has witnessed the development of a plethora of digital tools. Due to resource constrains, medical schools have already been transforming pedagogy by using technology to replace or enhance face-to-face teachings and to encourage self-directed learning. 7, 8 It would be apt to use these strategies now to remediate the consequences of this COVID-19 pandemic. Medical educators worldwide have promptly responded, swiftly transitioning the entire clinical curriculum to online formats. Small tutorial groups convene online to attend clinical didactic sessions and to discuss virtual cases. Neurosurgery institutions have already started to employ such channels to deliver education webinars. 9 In addition, extracurricular online neurosurgery resources from the likes of Neurosurgery Atlas, 10,11 ebrain, 12, 13 , and Brainbook, 14 have already attained global engagement and have proven that webbased platforms can be an effective method of not only disseminating neurosurgical knowledge, but activating and engaging, medical students and neurosurgeons.

Result from this survey demonstrated that basic or translational research was terminated in 41% of cases, and hindered in 35% of cases, whilst clinical research projects were stopped in 21% of cases, and slowed in 36% of cases. As a result, a significant number of students have expressed they are more inclined to undertake a research year to make up for the lost opportunities during ordeals. The drop in research productivity is a natural consequence of substantially-increased processing times for ethics approval and longer review times for non-COVID-related papers due to the more hectic schedules of peer reviewers and editors in this period. Hence, we suggest that students could adapt by utilizing this time to acquire research-relevant skills such as different research methodologies and statistical methods. In addition, students who are highly motivated could continue to conduct meaningful research activities through literature and systematic reviews, which can provide valuable insights on the current evidence for a given topic.

The key challenge remains providing authentic patient experiences for medical students -a key component of medical education -under these circumstances.

Uncertainty looms over the duration of quarantines and social distancing. The panic in the community is real and palpable. Acknowledging this, the COVID-19 pandemic represents an era for active curricular innovation and transformation. It is crucial the academic neurosurgery community continues to reflect and evaluate the impact these changes introduced in response to COVID-19, have on neurosurgery education, health and safety as well as future career progression.

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