Medical Education in Epidemic and Disaster Situations

Abstract

There is no standard practice for the sustainability of medical education in epidemics such as Covid-19 and disasters affecting society. Synchronous or asynchronous trainings have been carried out in some of universities and colleges that have distance education technical infrastructure, during the Covid-19 pandemic. If every student has access to information technologies and the skills of the instructors who will prepare and deliver the training increase their ability to use information technologies, there is no problem in the implementation and maintenance of theoretical lessons. During the Covid-19 pandemic, we had to go to distance education, which we had not yet implemented at Bezmialem Vakıf University Faculty of Medicine. During this period, we applied asynchronous and synchronous education models (mixed model) for theoretical lessons. However, the fact that practical and internship applications were carried out by distance education - although videos about skills and practices were shot and uploaded to the system - it was not possible to replace the formal education. Distance education is inevitable for the continuity of education in epidemic and disaster situations. However, after the epidemic and disaster situations have passed, practical and internship practices should be carried out as much as possible in addition to distance education in medical education. In normal times, distance education can only be used to support formal education in medical education. As a result of all these evaluations and experiences we gained in the Covid 19 pandemic, we think that synchronous/synchronous distance education applications will improve over time and contribute to medical education.