Current studentsExisting staffContact us
 

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on student experiences during rural placements in Australia: findings from a national multi-centre survey

Simple item page
dc.contributor.authorMartin, P.
dc.contributor.authorMcGrail, M.
dc.contributor.authorFox, J.
dc.contributor.authorOstini, R.
dc.contributor.authorDoyle, Z.
dc.contributor.authorPlayford, D.
dc.contributor.authorBeattie, J.
dc.contributor.authorIsaac, V.
dc.contributor.authorFuller, L.
dc.contributor.authorAllen, P.
dc.contributor.authorKondalsamy-Chennakesavan, S.
dc.date.issued2022
dc.description.abstract<h4>Background</h4>The aim of this national study was to explore the learning experiences of Australia's medical students who trained rurally during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.<h4>Methods</h4>A cross-sectional, national multi-centre survey was conducted in 2020, through the Federation of Rural Australian Medical Educators (FRAME). Participants were medical students who had completed an extended Rural Clinical School (RCS) training placement (≥ 12 months). A bespoke set of COVID-19 impact questions were incorporated into the annual FRAME survey, to capture COVID-19-related student experiences in 2020. Pre-pandemic (2019 FRAME survey data) comparisons were also explored.<h4>Results</h4>FRAME survey data were obtained from 464 students in 2020 (51.7% response rate), compared with available data from 668 students in 2019 (75.6% response rate). Most students expressed concern regarding the pandemic's impact on the quality of their learning (80%) or missed clinical learning (58%); however, students reported being well-supported by the various learning and support strategies implemented by the RCSs across Australia. Notably, comparisons to pre-pandemic (2019) participants of the general RCS experience found higher levels of student support (strongly agree 58.9% vs 42.4%, p < 0.001) and wellbeing (strongly agree 49.6% vs 42.4%, p = 0.008) amongst the 2020 participants. Students with more than one year of RCS experience compared to one RCS year felt better supported with clinical skills learning opportunities (p = 0.015) and less affected by COVID-19 in their exam performance (p = 0.009).<h4>Conclusions</h4>This study has provided evidence of both the level of concern relating to learning quality as well as the positive impact of the various learning and support strategies implemented by the RCSs during the pandemic in 2020. RCSs should further evaluate the strategies implemented to identify those that are worth sustaining into the post-pandemic period.
dc.identifier.citationBMC Medical Education, 2022; 22(1)
dc.identifier.doi10.1186/s12909-022-03927-1
dc.identifier.issn1472-6920
dc.identifier.issn1472-6920
dc.identifier.orcidFox, J. [0000-0001-8367-5297]
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/11541.2/43909
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherBMC
dc.rightsCopyright 2022 The Author(s). Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data. (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
dc.source.urihttps://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-022-03927-1
dc.subjectHumans
dc.subjectCross-Sectional Studies
dc.subjectSchools
dc.subjectAustralia
dc.subjectPandemics
dc.subjectCOVID-19
dc.titleImpact of the COVID-19 pandemic on student experiences during rural placements in Australia: findings from a national multi-centre survey
dc.typeJournal article
pubs.publication-statusPublished
ror.mmsid9917051666101831

Files

Collections