Abstract:
Medical students faced numerous challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. Their
experiences in overcoming this unprecedented disaster will be useful for addressing
similar incidents in the future. We studied students' perspectives on the challenges,
coping strategies, and expected support as part of a larger study on the impact of the
COVID-19 pandemic on medical students. We obtained ethics approval and
conducted a descriptive cross-sectional study at the Faculty of Medicine, SUSL. The
study period was between December 2021 and March 2022. All first (n=110), second
(n=75), and third-year students (n=70) were enrolled. The study was conducted
electronically using a self-administered questionnaire via Google Forms. A thematic
analysis of the responses was performed to examine the students' perspectives on the
challenges they would face, coping strategies, and expectations of staff support. The
response rates were 74.5% for the first year, 97.3% for the second year, and 61.4%
for third-year students. There were five major themes in terms of the challenges they
expect with the resumption of academic activities: facing multiple exams that had
been postponed, adapting to the new university environment and routines, coping with
the increased workload, time management to meet the demands, and adapting a
restricted lifestyle due to the fear of contracting COVID. The primary coping
strategies identified were utilizing effective study methods, socializing, seeking help
from staff and friends, scheduling time for relaxation and entertainment, and time
management strategies. Expected support from university staff was adapting
interactive teaching-learning methods, providing psychological support, arranging
social functions, organizing extracurricular activities and religious activities,
improving lecture schedules, and providing guidance for studies. These findings
highlight several major challenges students anticipate with the resumption of
academic activities. Challenges such as multiple exams, restricted lifestyles, and fear
of contracting the virus were probably rare prior to the pandemic. The innovative
strategies used to meet such challenges could be strengthened by the university to
further assist the needy. The students also identified several measures within and
outside the curriculum that could facilitate a smooth transition when returning to
work. These would be useful for consideration by the university that is keen on student
wellbeing.
