Modified OBGYN undergraduate medical education during the COVID-19 pandemic in Singapore

• Main Authors: Li, Xinyi, Li, Mingyue, Kathirvel, Rajeswari
• Other Authors: Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine (LKCMedicine)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2023
• Subjects: Science::Medicine; COVID-19 Pandemic; Virtual Clinical Posting
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/171718
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Since the first COVID‑19 case was reported in Singapore on 23 January 2020, the case numbers have increased rapidly. The Singapore authorities raised the nation’s Disease Outbreak Response System Condition (DORSCON) level from yellow to orange[1] on 7 February 2020. As of 25 September 2020, there was a total of 57,638 COVID‑19 cases and 27 deaths.[2] To prevent spread within the community and among healthcare workers, strict measures were put in place to manage the inflow of visitors to any healthcare institution. Fourth year medical students from Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine (LKCMedicine) had completed their first week of core theoretical sessions in the Obstetrics and Gynaecology (OBGYN) posting in KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital (KKH) on 7 February 2020. Their clinical OBGYN posting, which was due to begin on 10 February 2020, was suspended. However, the curriculum planning committee found an alternative way of proceeding with the OBGYN posting without any direct patient contact while ensuring that all the learning objectives and formative assessment criteria were met. This was done by converting the original clinical posting into a virtual one with distant learning conducted in the same timespan using online teleconferencing platforms. Since this was our first attempt at conducting a complete virtual clinical posting, we aimed to analyse the perceptions, concerns and feedback of the affected students and tutors.