Postgraduate medical journal
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COVID-19 led to the widespread withdrawal of face-to-face hospital-based clinical placements, with many medical schools switching to online learning. This precipitated concern about potential negative impact on clinical and interprofessional skill acquisition. To overcome this problem, we piloted a 12-week COVID-19 safe face-to-face clinical placement for 16 medical students at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases, London, during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. ⋯ Students described improved critical thinking, group cohesion, teamwork, self-confidence, self-worth and communication skills. This article describes a framework for the safe and effective delivery of a longer face-to-face apprenticeship-based clinical placement during an infectious disease pandemic. Longer apprenticeship-style attachments have hidden benefits to general professional training, which should be explored by medical schools both during the COVID-19 pandemic and, possibly, for any future clinical placements.
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Older adults are more likely to be vitamin D deficient. The aim of the study was to determine whether these patients have worse outcomes with COVID-19. ⋯ Older adults with vitamin D deficiency and COVID-19 may demonstrate worse morbidity outcomes. Vitamin D status may be a useful prognosticator.
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Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an infectious illness of high public concern. Healthcare students are directly or indirectly exposed to this disease. This study aimed to evaluate the knowledge of healthcare students in the central region of Saudi Arabia. ⋯ Our analysis demonstrates satisfactory student's knowledge but lacks awareness about background and mode of transmission of this disease; therefore, there is a strong need for further education and training programmes.