Medical education adaptation in South Korea during the COVID-19 pandemic
Introduction: We describe the circumstances and adaptations in the South Korean medical education during the COVID-19 pandemic and discuss areas in need of improvement in preparation of a worsening situation or for similar future public health crises. Methods: Literature reviews, focusing on resea...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
National University of Singapore
2021-07-01
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| Series: | The Asia Pacific Scholar |
| Online Access: | https://medicine.nus.edu.sg/taps/medical-education-adaptation-in-south-korea-during-the-covid-19-pandemic/ |
| Summary: | Introduction: We describe the circumstances and adaptations in the South Korean medical education during the COVID-19 pandemic and discuss areas in need of improvement in preparation of a worsening situation or for similar future public health crises.
Methods: Literature reviews, focusing on research papers about medical educational changes in South Korea during the COVID-19 pandemic were performed. Selective data collected from a nationwide online survey by the Korean Association of Medical Colleges on the status of curricular changes in medical schools during the COVID-19 was presented.
Results: All lectures have moved online, but clinical students continued their hospital placements during the pandemic, except for the first 3-5 weeks during the first surge in 2020. Initial technical naivety of the faculty and lack of technical resources were short-lived and the medical students settled well showing a much higher than expected student satisfaction level over online education. Practical skills sessions which benefit most from onsite hands-on experiences such as anatomy dissection, were delivered through a blended approach in some medical school. Student evaluation is the area of least change, mainly due to the students’ lack of trust in online assessments.
Conclusion: South Korea' underwent major changes in medical education brought upon COVID-19 and the readiness of the technology adoption has been much increased. Student evaluation is the area of least transformation. Adoption of a programmatic assessment system should be considered to enhance not only learning but also improve trust among stakeholders of medical schools.
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| ISSN: | 2424-9335 2424-9270 |