A Student in My Pocket: Development of a Virtual Internal Medicine Hospital Rotation During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Health advocacy is a key physician skill to address social determinants of health and promote health and health equity. 1 We noted a lack of medical school curricula that both address skills necessary to develop partnerships with advocacy stakeholders and students' desires to self-determine advocacy topic areas. A novel learning project was therefore designed to address these goals. Outcomes were followed for 3 years. We aim to describe student and community health partner outcomes and key lessons learned through the delivery of this project. Approach:The health advocacy project ("HAP") was incorporated as part of a required ambulatory clinical course at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health (UW-SMPH). The HAP allowed medical students to identify a topic and community partner and required students to arrange meetings with the partner to identify shared goals and a mutually agreed-upon project. Students dedicated approximately 8 hours of work over the 10-to 12-week course to this effort. Projects were focused on community partner goals. At the end of the course, students delivered their project, wrote a summary paper, and completed a selfevaluation on changes in attitudes and practice. Community partners submitted qualitative feedback.

Application of Virtual Reality Technology in Clinical Practice, Teaching, and Research in Complementary and Alternative Medicine

“…During the COVID-19 pandemic, many universities and hospitals around the world, including the University of California, Los Angeles [22], Baylor College of Medicine [23], the University of Chicago [18], the Columbia University Irving Medical Center [15], and the University of Pennsylvania [11], have conducted similar experiments. After virtual hospital practicums, students appreciated the interactive nature of the course, felt that the instruction and rotation provided sufficient experience and confidence to Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine understand internal medicine in a hospital setting, and expressed that they cherished this exposure to future career opportunities [11,15,18,22,23].…”

“…This requires an unprecedented change in the way the medical education sector provides clinical instructions, in line with efforts aimed at prioritizing the safety and slowing the spread of the virus. Several studies have attempted to fill this gap by applying VR to medical education and training to support physician learning during social distancing [ 11 , 13 , 15 , 18 , 22 , 23 ].…”

“…Several recent studies, reviews, and meta-analyses have shown that VR plays a positive role in CAM treatments such as meditation, hypnosis, palliative therapy, tai chi (TC), qigong, acupoint sticking therapy, aromatherapy, and yoga [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]. In addition, VR has helped clinicians overcome barriers in education [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24] and research [25,26] during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. To some extent, VR opens the door to a new generation of application programs in CAM.…”

A Review of Virtual Medical Student Rotations During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Their Role, Advantages, Disadvantages, and Future Prospects

“…Virtual rotations have been developed in almost every specialty, including but not limited to emergency medicine [ 4 , 5 ], geriatric psychiatry [ 6 ], intensive care [ 3 ], internal medicine [ 7 ], obstetrics and gynecology [ 8 ], ophthalmology [ 9 ], orthopedics [ 10 , 11 ], otolaryngology [ 12 , 13 ], pathology [ 14 , 15 ], pediatrics [ 16 ], physical medicine and rehabilitation [ 17 ], plastic surgery [ 18 ], radiation oncology [ 19 , 20 ], radiology [ 21 ], telehealth [ 22 ], urology [ 23 , 24 ], and vascular surgery [ 25 ].…”

“…These rotations cater to a clientele of medical students [ 3 - 5 , 8 - 25 ], resident physicians [ 6 , 23 ], and physician assistants [ 7 ]. They ranged in length from one week [ 24 ], two weeks [ 13 , 16 - 18 , 20 ], three weeks [ 8 , 15 ], four weeks [ 3 , 5 , 9 , 14 , 21 , 22 ], or were not specified.…”