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Table 2 Thematic synopsis of student and faculty narrative responses

From: Medical student remote eConsult participation during the COVID-19 pandemic

Theme

Student

Faculty

Teaching

 Positive

• Flexible scheduling with individualized interaction and learning

• Ability to work closely with an attending

• Increased comfort with giving basic ID recommendations

• Improved oral presentation skills

• One-on-one teaching

• Joy of having students back on the teaching service

• Phone teaching fairly comparable to in person rounds

• Opportunity to teach students who otherwise might not have benefitted.

 Negative

• Scheduling issues due to attending workload

• Without a team, there was no ability for students to give short formal presentations to other team members.

• Narrow subject matter.

Mentoring

 Positive

• Nurturing relationship with the attending.

 

 Negative

 

• Lack of in-person contact.

• Time spent in discussion with the student impacted time for other learners.

Patient Care

 Positive

• Ability to follow increased number of patients. Opportunity for students to participate in patient care despite suspended clinical rotations.

• Contribution to alleviating the burden on the consult team.

• Provided students with exposure to patient care during the pandemic from a safe vantage point

 Negative

• The inability to conduct a physical exam or speak with patient

• Variance in eConsult patient load

• Limited communication with other teams

• Few  eConsult patients at end of pandemic surge

Communication

 Negative

• Slower communication when not working together in person.

• Lag time for questions to be answered.

• Limited communication with primary care team