Building Up While Shutting Down: An Academic Health System Educational Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic

This article was migrated. The article was not marked as recommended. The disruptive influence of the novel Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic was felt worldwide, shutting down global activities and with it standard medical educational processes of face-to-face classroom sessions and clinical clerkship education. In the midst of suspending our face-to-face educational events to support safety for students, faculty, patients, and the community, we recognized the urgent need to build and implement online medical education coursework focused on the COVID-19 pandemic. In this innovative educational experience, we created a comprehensive approach to learning about the COVID-19 pandemic, including not only basic science and clinical knowledge, but also incorporating information in health system science, public health, and health equity. This study examined that perspective of third and fourth year medical students enrolled in a rapidly created two-week online COVID-19 Pandemic course. A course evaluation was completed by 266 of 347 students enrolled in the course. The evaluation included 10 Likert-scale items and 3 open response items. Results indicated an appreciation of basic science and clinical content of the course and serve to inform quality improvement for future iterations of the course or other institutions seeking to develop or improve COVID-19 coursework.