Amidst the COVID19 Pandemic: The best online learning and teaching practices in Internal Medicine Clerkship program of Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, University Santo Tomas, Philippines

Abstract

The best online teaching practices in the Internal Medicine Clerkship Program during the COVID-19 pandemic in the oldest university in Southeast Asia and oldest medical school in the Philippines was presented. Time constraint was a big factor during the unforeseen lockdown. There was a need to retool the faculty and provide institutional support to maximize the utilization of the existing online learning platform for the graduating medical clerks. The task to equip medical clerks with all the necessary knowledge, skills and attitude of a basic physician in such a short a time is colossal. So much so that this pandemic paved the way to adopt the best online learning and teaching practices that is expected to be a part of the blended learning even beyond the lockdown. The future of this COVID-19 pandemic is still bleak as of the moment, but as such it would defi nitely strengthen the position of online learning as an effective alternative or better still, a replacement of the traditional learning method. The COVID-19 pandemic has fostered acceptance of the online mode as an auspicious choice for the teaching and learning method in the future.

TWO THUMBS UP! A Review of the “PULMOSERYE: Pulmonary Patient Miniseries… Dead or Alive: The Saga of Mang Jose”- a Clerkship Learning Activity During the Pandemic

“…Strict restrictions kept them from actual patient interaction, hindering their progress into becoming full-pledged healthcare workers and threatening a delay in their program. All the clerkship teaching and learning activities had to be done online [2,3], and many of these focused on role-playing, with the facilitators acting as patients, and the clerks eventually arriving at diagnoses and management.…”