Medical Educator’s Attitudes and Experiences of Teaching Clinical Skills Online to Undergraduate Medical Students: Learning from COVID 19 and Future Implications

Background: Traditional hands-on instruction of clinical skills in undergraduate medical education faced a paradigm shift with the emergence of COVID-19. Online teaching through virtual learning environments swiftly replaced traditional methods, necessitating an urgent reassessment of clinical skills education. Despite this, a knowledge gap persists regarding the effective delivery and integration of online clinical skills teaching within established medical curricula. This study investigated UK based medical educators and their experiences teaching clinical skills in an online environment enforced by social distancing. From these results we aimed to better understand how aspects of online teaching can be strategically employed within the current landscape of medical education to optimize practical skills acquisition. Methods: A cross-sectional study design employing a survey with closed and open-ended questions was utilized. The survey was hosted through the online survey platform EU Qualtrics and approved by the Education Leads Advisory Group of the Medical Schools Council for further distribution to medical educators. The results were analysed by frequency of answers with accompanying thematic analysis. Results: This study gathered responses from 22 medical educators of various seniority across 11 UK universities. Educators had low levels of knowledge regarding pre-COVID-19 online teaching. During the pandemic, sessions were often conducted remotely, with F2F teaching resuming under strict measures. Educators believed that online teaching, particularly for non-practical skills, offered engagement and flexibility. While the majority preferred a blended approach, there was hesitation in completely replacing F2F teaching. Educators expressed a strong belief in F2F as the most effective means of skills teaching, emphasizing the importance of supervision and hands-on practice. Despite uncertainties, educators acknowledged the benefits of online learning, emphasizing the need for proper resources and training for successful integration into clinical skills teaching. Conclusion: While there is preference for online teaching in non-practical skills, educators continued to express reservations about fully replacing F2F clinical skills teaching due to technological challenges and limited digital fluency. The overall preference among educators leaned towards a blended approaching utilising both modalities, harnessing benefits of online teaching such as flexibility while retaining the advantages of traditional methods.