Satisfaction of Medical Students with Distance Form of Practice Organization: Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic

This study focused on the assessment of medical students' satisfaction with the organization of practical training in pandemic conditions through the identification of discrepancies between the conditions of the actual implementation of practical training of medical students and their expectations. The study contributed to the identification of problems in the organization of educational and industrial practice in a distance format during the COVID-19 pandemic. The research design was based on the application of an internet survey using Google Forms and the processing of quantitative data using descriptive statistics. Data visualization using histograms and comparison with Gaussian curve was used to interpret the results. Difficulties of practice supervisors in organizing practical activities of students in the distance format were revealed, as to solve the set tasks of practice supervisors had to use, in a very short period of time, developed digital educational resources with accompanying online counseling and using the capabilities of the simulation center, taking into account sanitary and epidemiological requirements for maximum immersion to real medical cases. The results of the study can become a tool for collecting reliable feedback on the suddenly changed format of medical students' practical training on the example of Kazan Federal University. The study reflects the results of the new format of internship organization, which allows supervisors of practical training to rethink the possibility of this format for future times.