Objective: This study was conducted to explore factors that can impact psychological health and coping strategies to help health care professionals (HCPs) to perform their duties. Methods: A cross sectional survey was conducted using structured questionnaire electronically shared with the participants after ethical approval. Descriptive statistics were calculated for socio demographic variables. Chi squared χ² test was used to compare the responses between different groups of HCPs. Results: Survey was completed by 250 participants. They performed their duties diligently during outbreak but were concerned about their safety, had fear of infecting themselves and their family members. Lack of evidence-based guidelines for patient management, news about pandemic situation through media and to deal with uncooperative patients not willing for quarantine added to their stress. receiving honour and respect from general public in recognition of services, monetary benefit, adequate training to treat COVID-19, provision of personal protective equipment from government were reported as coping strategies for psychological impact. Conclusions: COVID-19 outbreak had psychological impact on HCPs, yet they continued to perform their duties carefully as moral obligation. Continued moral with financial support and acknowledgement of their services by government, organization and general public was reported to have psychological benefit. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.36.7.2988 How to cite this:Noreen K, Umar M, Sabir SA, Rehman R. Outbreak of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID‑19) in Pakistan: Psychological impact and coping strategies of Health Care Professionals. Pak J Med Sci. 2020;36(7):---------. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.36.7.2988 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Introduction: The SWOC (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and challenges) analysis of e-learning at Rawalpindi Medical University during the period of the COVID-19 pandemic was conducted. Methods: This cross-sectional survey-based study using a mixed quantitative and qualitative approach was conducted at Rawalpindi Medical University in June 2020 through an online survey. Data were collected electronically from 400 undergraduate medical students and faculty members using online Google forms. The study was carried out after obtaining ethical approval from the Institutional Review Board of Rawalpindi Medical University. Anonymity and confidentiality of data were maintained. Results: The salient features of e-learning at RMU was the establishment of prospect for remote learning in unprecedented circumstances and promotion of learner-centered, self-directed lifelong learning while the unavailability of internet and professional isolation was reported as a potential weakness, an opportunity provided by this platform was the introduction of blended learning programs and digital competence while potential challenges reported were conduction of valid, reliable and feasible e-assessment and strategies for teaching, learning, and assessment strategies for psychomotor and soft skills. Conclusion: In-depth analysis of e-learning during the midst of COVID-19 has made this evident that RMU is fully equipped and ready to cope up with any unforeseen event with regards to undergraduate medical education. There is startling need to develop infrastructure for long term sustainability and acceptability by availing opportunities, improving strength, and overcoming potential weaknesses and challenges.

The differences between the men and women residents' experiences was significant in several areas. A potentially confounding factor is that the women may have been preferentially placed in team areas with all women staff physicians and the men placed in team areas with all men staff physicians. As family medicine programs aim for levels of exposure that are sufficient and similar for men and women residents, it is important that they evaluate the clinical opportunities for residents in women's health and work to ensure that both men and women residents receive adequate exposure in this area. One step in this direction might be gender-balanced patient populations, which might be obtained by ensuring gender-balanced clinical teams.

Objective: The aim of this study is to identify different forms of sexual harassment that female medical students face, environment in which it is most prevalent, effects on future career choices, and determine steps to mitigate workplace sexual harassment.Study Design: Cross sectional study design.Place and Duration of Study: The study was carried out at Department of Community Medicine, Rawalpindist st Medical University, Rawalpindi from 1 February, 2020 to 1 March, 2020.Materials and Methods: A quantitative, cross-sectional descriptive design was used in this study. The targetpopulation of the study was registered female students at Rawalpindi Medical University, with a sample size of166. Questionnaire was used for data collection and data was analysed using Statistical Package for SocialSciences (SPSS) Version 23.0 program. The basic ethical principles were observed, and the ethical clearancecertificate was obtained prior to data collection.Results: According to our study, highest number of respondents were 3rd year students (46), 81% reported thatthey have experienced any form of sexual harassment, 42% reported fear of it happening in their personalcontext in medical institute, 83% said that it may influence their future career choices. Most frequent form ofsexual harassment they experienced is starring and leering (72%), while most susceptible / vulnerable time isduring night (62%), college transport buses are reported as the most frequent place (15%), conductors anddrivers are the most common perpetrators (24%). In our study, major barrier in low reporting of sexualharassment is fear of victimization (34%).Conclusion: This study shows that female students in university are experiencing different forms of sexualharassment.

Thinking can simply be viewed as, generating your own thoughts on anything, and reviewing these till you comprehend it at some minimum level. Thinking is the most powerful attribute of a human being. In our daily life or even in professional work settings, most of the time our thinking remains limited to others’ ideas or already known facts and it is enough well to carry out our work in a “by default” pattern. While working in a clinical setup we daily confront many disease conditions, and we generally accept and deal with the whole course of illnesses under our memorized knowledge. Our mind is ready to see or accept all pathophysiologic & clinical events of a given disease, management modalities, treatment outcomes, and the complications, as they had been reported or taught and not anything in between. We don’t notice or concentrate on why any variability or difference happening beyond reasons we have learned through our training. This is good enough to run routine practices. But a problem, or a worse happening, costing human suffering or life, need little “thinking” on “why” of it, specifically if it is not explained previously. Actually, any visible variability or event has a set of many underlying sub-events or connections which were linked to eventually produce an apparent happening. The primary act of a researcher’s mind is to notice the varied happening and the job is to theorize its reasons, testify the assumed theory under applicable scientific methods, and infer based on identified facts. Knowledge is floating behind any unexplained thing or such visible phenomenon; it just needs taking notice of it and “thinking” on ‘why & how” of it. Here it would be relevant to recall the saying of a great Nobel laureate Albert Szent-Gyorgyi (medicine 1937) that “Research is to see what everybody else has seen, and to think what nobody else has thought.” This would be the beginning of research thinking. Research thinking is not a one-moment process, rather a start of a chain of connected thoughts which demands more and more reviews and some actions too, till you reach some workable idea or hypothesis. Initially, your thinking may have many intuitive, fictional, or irrational elements but as you move forward, you become more & more pragmatic, and your construct follows scientific rules. Initially, your conceptualized construct may have some ridiculous postulates but actually, you are making efforts towards a way to produce controlled evidence for them. That is the practical pathway of the research. As a matter of fact, it is your intuitiveness or dreaming capacity with which you connect things in a unique or different way to explain a problem or happening which is the real essence of research. Here measures like deep reading on that particular issue, exploring historical purview, talking to fellows, or even conducting small experiments, help a lot to refine and improve your initial theory or construct. “I find for myself that my first thought is never my best thought. My first thought is always someone else’s; it’s always what I’ve already heard about the subject, always the conventional wisdom. It is only by concentrating, sticking to the question, being patient, letting all the parts of my mind come into play, that I arrive at an original idea. By giving my brain chances to make associations, draw connections, take me by surprise”. And often even that idea doesn’t turn out to be very good. I need time to think about it, too, to make mistakes and recognize them, to make false starts and correct them, to outlast my impulses, to defeat my desire to declare the job done and move on to the next thing. You do your best thinking by slowing down and concentrating. The best way to improve your ability to think is to spend time thinking.