Abstract
PURPOSE: The COVID-19 pandemic hastened the need for graduate medical education (GME) innovation, resulting in the creation of multiple pediatric rehabilitation medicine (PRM) e-learning initiatives. There has been a paucity of data regarding trainee perceptions regarding quickly developed new methods of learning during the pandemic. This study explored PRM trainee perceptions of e-learning and effects of the pandemic on education. METHODS: Questionnaire study with data collected via REDCap. RESULTS: Greater than half of PRM trainees (56.6%, 30/53) responded. Most respondents reported that the virtual lectures series (79.3%), journal club (78.9%), and virtual arts initiatives (75.0%) were valuable to their education. Common benefits noted included access to subject experts, networking, lecture recording, and location flexibility. Common concerns included lack of protected time, virtual platform fatigue, and decreased engagement. Most respondents were not redeployed. Relative to before the pandemic, less satisfaction with clinical education (70.0%) and greater satisfaction with non-clinical education (60.0%) was reported. The majority of graduating trainees felt positively (83.3%) and 16.7% were neutral regarding confidence to graduate. CONCLUSION: Trainees perceived national e-learning as valuable to their education, especially due to the access to expert leaders around the nation. Future work should explore ways to overcome barriers and optimize benefits of GME and PRM e-learning.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 289-299 |
| Number of pages | 11 |
| Journal | Journal of pediatric rehabilitation medicine |
| Volume | 13 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2020 |
Funding
The authors would like to acknowledge and offer sincere gratitude to the volunteer educators in the virtual PRM lecture series, the virtual PRM journal club, and the virtual Arts in PRM who came together during a difficult time to educate PRM trainees across the country. The authors also extend their gratitude to Dr. Priya Chandan for her assistance. REDCap is supported at FSM by the Northwestern University Clinical and Translational Science (NUCATS) Institute, Research reported in this publication was supported, in part, by the National Institutes of Health’s National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, Grant Number UL1TR001422.
Keywords
- COVID-19
- Pediatric Rehabilitation Medicine
- asynchronous learning
- e-learning
- graduate medical education
- online learning
- virtual learning
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Medicine
