Back to the medical classes-Part I-Strategy for return to the presential practices during COVID-19 pandemics in a Brazilian Medical School

  1. Maria Auxiliadora Nogueira Saad
  2. Vinicius César Jardim Pereira
  3. Arnaldo Costa Bueno
  4. Alan Araujo Vieira
  5. Maria de Fátima Pombo March
  6. Maria Dolores Salgado Quintans
  7. Bruno Mendonça Barcellos
  8. Laura da Cunha Ferreira
  9. Karla Regina Oliveira Moura Ronchini
  10. Luis Guillermo Coca Velarde
  11. Claudete Aparecida Araújo Cardoso
  12. André Ricardo Araujo da Silva

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Abstract

Introduction

In Brazil, practices of medical students have been interrupted due to COVID-19 to meet emergency demands.

Aim

To describe a strategy for a controlled return to the presential practices for medical students.

Methods

We developed a standardized protocol to be applied before and during the return of the practical classes in medical students of Universidade Federal Fluminense, in the follow months after COVID-19 pandemic beginning. The protocol was comprised in three parts: Remote training on COVID-19 prevention; Face-to-face training focused in COVID-19 prevention, handwashing and personal protective equipment use; Investigation of students COVID-19 status before starting practical activities and weekly monitoring for COVID-19 during seven weeks. The training was done by medical teachers in small groups for medical students of the last lective semester.

Results

The classes were interrupted on March 12, 2020 and returned in August 10, 2020. Seventy-one students were trained and followed. The mean age was 26.6 years (26.7 ±0.835) and 54% were female. Forty-nine (69%) students over 71 had a private health insurance, 60 (84.5%) shared a house/apartment with one or more person and 12(16.9%) reported a previous comorbidity. Eighteen (25.4%) over 71 reported previous symptoms of COVID-19, being positive in two students. During the follow-up, fourteen (19.7%) over 71 students were placed in quarantine due to signals/symptoms compatible with COVID-19 or contact with symptomatic case. Only two cases (2.8%) were confirmed and occurred in Brazilian epidemiological week 37.

Conclusion

The protocol was successful in minimizing COVID-19 acquisition during practical classes of medical students.

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  1. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2021.10.14.21264918: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    EthicsIRB: Ethical approval: The study was approved by Ethics Committee of School of Medicine (Universidade Federal Fluminense) under number 4.610.403.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    No key resources detected.

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:
    But even with this limitation of resources it was possible to investigate the disease in almost 80% of suspected cases. Our study has some limitations. The first one is to be conducted during a period where the epidemiological setting of the state was favorable, which could interfere positively in results. The second one is the difficulty to confirm the infection in all suspected cases, which was a reality of Brazilian healthcare system, during the COVID-19 pandemics. In conclusion, our protocol was successful in minimizing COVID-19 acquisition during practical classes of medical students of Universidade Federal Fluminense. A continuous surveillance is necessary to investigate adequacy of the protocol according to the less favorable epidemiological setting.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    Results from scite Reference Check: We found no unreliable references.

    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.

  2. Version published to 10.1101/2021.10.14.21264918v1 on medRxiv