The Views of Medical Faculty Students in Turkey Concerning the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The aim of this study was to elicit the views of medical faculty students regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. This descriptive study was performed with Ondokuz Mayıs University Medical Faculty students on 24-27 March, 2020. The Medical Faculty currently has 2051 students. A questionnaire was used as a data collection tool. For that purpose, the authors designed a questionnaire specifically for this research via the "Google Forms" web. This consisted of 40 open- and close-ended questions. The questionnaire was completed by 1375 (67.1%) students. Accordingly, 52.4% of medical students reported feeling mentally unwell. Although 50.8% of medical students reported generally/usually obtaining information about COVID-19 through the social media, 82.0% did not trust information/messages arriving through the social media and WhatsApp. We found that 86.7% of students regarded frequent hand washing as the most important means of protection against COVID-19, and 19.3% of students did not regard the COVID-19 pandemic as a severe public health problem for Turkey at that moment. In addition, 61.6% of students stated that a suppression strategy involving tight restrictions need to be applied to being the pandemic under control in Turkey. Use can be made of medical students in the transmission of accurate information during the COVID-19 pandemic. Students can be excellent activists on these subjects in countries in which medical education is suspended. Measures therefore need to be taken concerning the transmission of up to date and accurate information to medical students.

Keywords: COVID-19; Medical student; Pandemic; Turkey.