Session Information
Session Title: Research Hub - Live Theater Research Spotlight: Pandemic
Session Time: None. Available on demand.
Disclosures: Neyha Cherin: No financial relationships or conflicts of interest
Background and/or Objectives: The Patient Experience Program (PEP) provides vital clinical exposure for 1st-year medical students. The 9-month PEP course involves a multidisciplinary approach at multiple clinical sites and is historically entirely in-person. Students actively engage with patients, learning effective communication with both the patient and clinical team. By assisting patients with their care, students learn how to navigate complex aspects of the healthcare system. The Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R) Department modified its curriculum to combat the barriers of the evolving pandemic guidelines, with the goal of maintaining positive student engagement and therapeutic relationships between clinical team members.
Design: Exploratory
Setting: PEP curriculum at PM&R site
Participants: 60 students over 2 years
Interventions: PPE and COVID-19 screening allow for safe in-person encounters. Several didactic sessions are in-person, including the adapted driving, disability simulations, and social work panel. Decreasing cohort size and modifying rotation hours permit students to appropriately social distance while still gaining diverse exposure to the healthcare setting. The curriculum has a strong virtual component as well. Certain rotations now take place virtually, including weekly interdisciplinary team conferences and group huddle sessions to maintain patient interaction and to foster a group collaborative atmosphere and dialogue.
Main Outcome Measures: End-of-year surveys
Results: End-of-year surveys are overwhelmingly positive. Students note adjustments to the program allow for ongoing beneficial clinical encounters and meaningful engagement with patients in this hybrid format. Both students and faculty members report ease with implementation and maintenance of adjustments. Faculty have noted the hybrid format allows for successful relationships between student, patients, and staff. In order to maintain this valuable 1st-year medical student program, PM&R faculty unanimously support these modifications to the curriculum.
Conclusions: This novel curriculum provides an example of a successful hybrid learning format that other departments can implement to enhance student-patient interactions during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Level of Evidence: Level IV
To cite this abstract in AMA style:
Cherin N, Milne I, Lokey N, Fye NM. “Unprecedented Times”: A Review of Curriculum Changes at the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Patient Experience Site During the COVID-19 Pandemic [abstract]. PM R. 2022; 14(S1)(suppl 1). https://pmrjabstracts.org/abstract/unprecedented-times-a-review-of-curriculum-changes-at-the-physical-medicine-and-rehabilitation-patient-experience-site-during-the-covid-19-pandemic/. Accessed November 13, 2024.« Back to AAPM&R Annual Assembly 2022
PM&R Meeting Abstracts - https://pmrjabstracts.org/abstract/unprecedented-times-a-review-of-curriculum-changes-at-the-physical-medicine-and-rehabilitation-patient-experience-site-during-the-covid-19-pandemic/