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SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article

Front. Med.
Sec. Healthcare Professions Education
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2024.1358084

Medical education during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic: an umbrella review

Provisionally accepted
Seyed Aria Nejadghaderi Seyed Aria Nejadghaderi 1Zohreh Khoshgoftar Zohreh Khoshgoftar 1*Asra Fazlollahi Asra Fazlollahi 2Mohammad J. Nasiri Mohammad J. Nasiri 1
  • 1 Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Tehran, Iran
  • 2 Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic affected many aspects of lifestyle and medical education during the recent years. We aimed to determine the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on medical education to provide an overview of systematic reviews on it. Methods: We searched PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, Cochrane library, Google Scholar, and medRxiv, with the following keywords: “SARS-CoV-2”, “COVID-19”, “Medical Education”, “E-learning”, “Distance Education”, “Online Learning”, “Virtual Education”, “systematic review”, and “meta-analysis”, up to 15 April 2023. Studies were included if they were systematic reviews assessing the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on medical sciences students. We used A MeaSurement Tool to Assess systematic Reviews 2 (AMSTAR-2) checklist for quality assessment. Results: A total of 28 systematic reviews were included. The eligible reviews included between five and 64 primary studies, ranging from 897 to 139381 participants. Technology-enhanced learning and simulation-based learning were the most frequently used strategies. Virtual teaching has several drawbacks like technical difficulties, confidentiality problems, lower student involvement, connection problems, and digital fatigue. The overall satisfaction rate for online learning was above 50%. Also, favorable opinions about perception, acceptability, motivation, and engagement were reported. The quality of 27 studies were critically low and one was low. Conclusions: There were reduced clinical exposure and satisfaction for medical students during the pandemic. Further high-quality systematic reviews are required.

    Keywords: Virtual education, SARS-CoV-2, Dentistry, Nursing, Pharmacy, Veterinary Medicine, COVID - 19, E-learnig

    Received: 19 Dec 2023; Accepted: 24 Jun 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Nejadghaderi, Khoshgoftar, Fazlollahi and Nasiri. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Zohreh Khoshgoftar, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, 198396-3113, Tehran, Iran

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.