Medical Center. “But you can only do one rotation there. I don’t have anything scheduled after this. My only audition rotation, at Tulane, was canceled.”, chief medical education officer for the Assn. of American Medical Colleges. “Medical school is stressful, and with COVID it’s even more stressful.”
In order to become well-rounded doctors, students need to see a broad mix of patients with a diverse group of medical issues. But even at hospitals and clinics that have resumed general care, patients with ailments other than those associated with COVID-19 are not showing up because they’re afraid of catching the coronavirus. Elsewhere, elective procedures have been canceled or postponed.
“The progression of students over time for relatively on-time graduation is essential,” Whelan said. Enabling students to finish their education in the COVID-19 era “is an ongoing, complex, jigsaw puzzle.”Third-year students can still complete most of their required rotations, although perhaps not in the usual order. Schools have tried to fill in the gaps by dramatically increased their use of online teaching of diagnostics and care.
“A fair amount of what students do is observation,” she said. “So schools have created step-by-step videos.”