gms | German Medical Science

Question/objective: The outbreak of war in Ukraine has created serious challenges to medical education in the country. We implemented two blended learning modules in 1) medical communication and counselling skills and 2) clinical reasoning and case-based discussions as substitutes and offered them to medical students at two Ukrainian universities. To ensure quality and continuous improvement of the modules, we conducted a student survey.

Methods: Our partners were the medical universities Vinnytsya and Ternopil. In Module 1, the basics of medical communication, taking a medical history, and breaking bad news were taught in the asynchronous phase. The knowledge was then applied in the synchronous phase through video conferences with feedback exercises, role-play with fellow students/simulated patients, and small group discussions. In Module 2, basic principles of clinical decision-making were taught asynchronously. To consolidate the content, case-based discussions were conducted synchronously in video conferences. The student perspective was surveyed using an online-based questionnaire. Differences between independent dichotomous variables were analysed with the Welch-test, the interaction effect was analysed using ANOVA.

Results: A total of 417 students (out of 1306 participating students) completed the evaluation with 43.2% enrolled in Ternopil and 55.9% in Vinnytsya (0.9% missings). Module 1 was assessed by 196 students and Module 2 by 180 students. We identified three scales – “structure and content”, “teacher”, and “learning outcome”. The disturbance item “interruption of courses due to events such as air raids or technical system failures’ had a significant impact on the scales. Evaluation of the modules revealed significant differences, with Module 1 receiving a higher rating than Module 2 in all three scales. Evaluation also revealed significant differences between the two universities, with Vinnytsya students rating the modules more favourably than Ternopil students. The introduction of the disturbance item as an interaction effect eliminated the differences between universities in terms of the scales “teacher” and “learning outcome”.

Discussion: Both Modules 1 and 2 were evaluated positively by students, providing a strong foundation for the concepts to be transferred to four newly acquired Ukrainian partner universities. It is possible that Module 1 received a more favourable rating because of its smaller group size. Air raids were often at night and in the mornings. In Ternopil, teaching was integrated into the current curriculum, which traditionally took place in the mornings. The modules were thus more frequently disrupted by air raids than in Vinnytsya with the modules in the afternoon.

Take home messages: The two module concepts are viable and contribute to the continuity of medical studies in war-torn Ukraine. Additionally, they serve as a reference project for other universities to follow.