Introduction The COVID-19 pandemic in March of 2020 necessitated the removal of medical students from direct patient care activities to prevent disease spread and to conserve personal protective equipment. In order for medical student education to continue, virtual and online electives were designed and implemented expeditiously. We created a virtual curriculum that taught quality improvement (QI) skills within the context of the global pandemic. Methods This 4-week curriculum enrolled 16 students. Students completed the revised QI knowledge application tool (QIKAT-R) before and after the course to assess QI knowledge. Students completed prereading, online modules, and received lectures on QI and incident command systems. Each group designed their own QI project related to our hospital system's response to the pandemic. Finally, groups presented their projects at a peer symposium and completed peer evaluations. Results Students' QIKAT-R scores improved throughout the course from a mean of 5.5 ( SD = 1.3) to a mean of 7.5 ( SD = 1.1; p < 0.001). Students reported that the virtual learning experience delivered the material effectively, and all students agreed that they would participate in QI work in the future. Discussion Patient safety and QI topics are content areas for multiple medical licensing examinations. Virtual learning is an effective way to deliver QI content to medical students and residents, especially when projects are trainee-led, QI-trained faculty serve as mentors, and the projects harmonize with institutional goals. Our virtual pandemic-focused curriculum has demonstrated efficacy in increasing medical student QI knowledge.

Background: Elective culinary medicine education has become popular to help fill important gaps in physician nutrition training. The implementation and outcomes among the inaugural cohort of medical students who received culinary medicine training as a required component of medical school curriculum at the University of Maryland School of Medicine are described. Methods: Following a series of elective pilot sessions, culinary medicine training was provided to all first-year medical students in the 2019-2020 academic year. The 3-hour training included evidence-based nutrition lecture, cooking simple recipes, and group discussion of the application to personal and patient care. Pre-/postsession questionnaires assessed nutrition knowledge, skills, and attitudes as well as nutritional counseling confidence. Paired t-tests estimated mean differences in outcomes pre- and posttraining. Qualitative data were subjected to thematic analysis. Results: Overall, 119 of 125 (95.2%) students provided pre- and posttraining outcomes data. All nutritional and patient counseling outcomes improved ( P < .05). Themes of being better prepared to address healthy eating barriers in patient care and personal ability to make healthy dietary changes were noted in qualitative analysis. Conclusion: One session of culinary medicine training in core medical student curriculum was feasible and improved medical student nutrition knowledge, skills, and attitudes and confidence in patient nutrition counseling.

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The University of Maryland School of Medicine embarked on our first major curriculum revision since 1994 with a plan to implement this Renaissance Curriculum in August 2020. However, in the Spring of 2020, the coronavirus disease (COVID‐19) pandemic disrupted clinical care and medical education on a large scale requiring expeditious modifications to our Renaissance Curriculum as well as our traditional Legacy Curriculum in order to meet our goal of educating the next‐generation of physicians. The rippling effects of the COVID‐19 pandemic led to major changes in the delivery of the pre‐clerkship curriculum, the way we assessed and evaluated students, entry into the clinical environment, length of clinical rotations, and orientation for our new medical students. We relied on “new” technology, digital medical resources, and the creativity of our educators to ensure that our learners continue to acquire the skills necessary to become skilled clinicians in these unprecedented times.

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