Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Aug 5;17(8):e0269562.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0269562. eCollection 2022.

The COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on medical teaching in obstetrics and gynecology-A nationwide expert survey among teaching coordinators at German university hospitals

Maximilian Riedel  1 , Niklas Amann  2 , Florian Recker  3 , André Hennigs  4 , Sabine Heublein  4 , Bastian Meyer  1 , Anne Karge  1 , Gabriel Eisenkolb  1 , Jacqueline Lammert  1 , Anna Graf  1 , Evelyn Klein  1 , Martin Weiss  5   6 , Fabian Riedel  4
Affiliations

The COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on medical teaching in obstetrics and gynecology-A nationwide expert survey among teaching coordinators at German university hospitals

Maximilian Riedel et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Purpose: The COVID-19 pandemic has imposed severe challenges on medical education at German university hospitals. In this first German nationwide expert survey, we addressed the responsible university teaching coordinators in obstetrics and gynecology departments and investigated their experiences during the pandemic as well as their opinions on future developments, especially with regard to the broader implementation of e-learning in the standard curriculum.

Methods: The questionnaire included 42 items and was disseminated among teaching coordinators at all 41 departments of obstetrics and gynecology at German university hospitals via an email that included a weblink to the online survey provider. Responses were collected between 19 April and 7 June 2021.

Results: In total, 30 responses were collected from 41 departments across Germany and their respective teaching coordinators in obstetrics and gynecology. The general opinion of the medical teaching provided during the pandemic was positive, whereas the teaching quality in practical skills was considered inferior and not equivalent to the standard face-to-face curriculum. Lectures and seminars had to be substituted by remote-learning alternatives, while clinical clerkships were reduced in length and provided less patient contact. Students in their final year experienced only a few differences in the clinical and teaching routine. Teaching coordinators in obstetrics and gynecology stated that they intend to incorporate more e-learning into the curriculum in the future.

Conclusion: The medical educators' views presented here may help to complement the already-thoroughly investigated experiences of students under the restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic. Medical educators in obstetrics and gynecology at German university hospitals have successfully established online and hybrid teaching alternatives to their standard face-to-face courses. Building on recent experiences, digitalization could help to improve future medical education.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

I have read the journal’s policy and the authors of this manuscript have the following potential competing interests: Niklas Amann, Florian Recker, and Martin Weiss are members of the “Junges Forum in der DGGG” (i.e., the official German organization and interest group of physicians in training in OB/GYN within the German Society for Gynecology and Obstetrics). This does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and material.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. The distribution of respondents and their respective university hospitals according to their German postal codes.
Graphical map of Germany in a color scheme from white (n = 0) to dark blue (n = 5) depicting the distribution of the absolute number of responses in each of the German postal code areas from 0–9 (left). Table depicting the number and locations of the German university hospitals (city), absolute responses (n =) and relative distribution (%) out of all of the 30 responses received for each postal code area (right). The map was created using iMapU 3.0 (by iEcelU) under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CCAL) CC BY 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) with permission from Carsten Tschirner.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Alsoufi A. et al., “Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on medical education: Medical students’ knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding electronic learning,” PLoS One, vol. 15, no. 11, p. e0242905, 2020, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0242905 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Al-Balas M. et al., “Distance learning in clinical medical education amid COVID-19 pandemic in Jordan: current situation, challenges, and perspectives,” BMC Med Educ, vol. 20, no. 1, p. 341, Oct. 2020, doi: 10.1186/s12909-020-02257-4 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. “Hochschulrektorenkonferenz (HRK): Auflagen und Regelungen der Bundesländer für den Lehr- und Prüfungsbetrieb an Hochschulen im Sommersemester 2020 und Wintersemester 2020/21.” Nov. 15, 2021. [Online]. https://www.hrk.de/themen/hochschulsystem/covid-19-pandemie-und-die-hoch...
    1. Nikendei C., Weyrich P., Jünger J., and Schrauth M., “Medical education in Germany,” Medical Teacher, vol. 31, no. 7, pp. 591–600, Jan. 2009, doi: 10.1080/01421590902833010 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Nikendei C., Krautter M., Celebi N., Obertacke U., and Jünger J., “Final Year Medical Education in Germany,” Zeitschrift für Evidenz, Fortbildung und Qualität im Gesundheitswesen, vol. 106, no. 2, pp. 75–84, 2012, doi: 10.1016/j.zefq.2012.01.002 - DOI - PubMed