A comparison of pre- and post-clinical simulation anxiety levels of undergraduate medical students before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: A prospective cohort study
The aim of the present study was to compare the anxiety of undergraduate medical students who were conducting clinical simulation (CS) prepandemic, during the pandemic, and postvaccination. The participants carried out an emergency simulation in a high-fidelity clinical skills laboratory. A prospect...
| Autores: | , , , , , , , , , |
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2025 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha |
| Repositorio: | RUIdeRA. Repositorio Institucional de la UCLM |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:ruidera.uclm.es:10578/48018 |
| Acceso en línea: | https://doi.org/10.3390/bs15040447 https://hdl.handle.net/10578/48018 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Anxiety COVID19 pandemic High-fidelity clinical simulation Undergraduate students |
| Sumario: | The aim of the present study was to compare the anxiety of undergraduate medical students who were conducting clinical simulation (CS) prepandemic, during the pandemic, and postvaccination. The participants carried out an emergency simulation in a high-fidelity clinical skills laboratory. A prospective, simulation-based clinical cohort study of sixth-year undergraduate medical students was performed over three time periods: from 1 January to 15 April 2019; from 28 September to 18 December 2020; and from 11 Mayto 18 May2022. The primary outcome was anxiety level (pre- and postsimulation) measured withthe STAItest. Data on student demographics and baseline vital signs (before CS) were collected. A total of 373 students were ultimately included. A total of 40.2% of the cases were prepandemic (150 cases), 20.4% were pandemic (76 cases), and 39.4% were postvaccination (147 cases). The study period had a statistically significant effect on anxiety. There was a statistically significant increase in the incidence of anxiety during the pandemic time period compared with that during the prepandemic and postvaccination periods; no difference was found between the prepandemic and postvaccination periods. Performing CS in biohazardous environments significantly increases anxiety levels, so establishing mitigating measures to minimize the undesired effects of anxiety and promote the simulation-based learning process is necessary. The study was carried out at a single university; in future studies, it is necessary to carry out multicenter investigations to confirm the results. |
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