MIDWIFERY STUDENTS' PERCEPTIONS OF TELESIMULATION IN A CLINICAL COURSE DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC: LESSONS AND LEARNINGS

Abstract

Background: Health sciences education was severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, given the closure of faculties, hospitals and clinical practice centers. Most of the face-to-face theoretical subjects had to be restructured to online modality, due to the emergency remote education context. This situation also impacted clinical subjects of the Obstetrics and Childcare career at the University of Chile. This experience affected the way we teach today.

Objective: To describe the student perception of the first online simulation experience implemented in the PHC II clinical course at the School of Obstetrics of the University of Chile between January and April 2021.

Method: Convergent mixed design study. A self-administered survey was carried out, which contained 15 questions with a score from 1 to 5 and an open question. It was applied by means of a GoogleⓇ form to 16 students who voluntarily participated and were taking the Primary Care Clinic II (CAP II), of the eighth semester of the obstetrics and childbirth course at the University of Chile. This was followed by a discussion group with the same participants. A descriptive analysis of the self-administered survey and a narrative analysis of the discussion group were used.

Results: The perception of the activity was good. The students believe that the online simulation is a didactic strategy that facilitates the development of clinical reasoning and the professional role. It is necessary to incorporate break times during the activity and to improve the delivery of evaluation rubrics in the course platform.

Conclusion: Telesimulation is an easy to implement didactic technique. It requires highly trained teachers and students. In spite of this, it is necessary to continue with didactic classroom strategies so that both can be complementary. It is a strategy that facilitates the development of critical thinking.