The effectiveness of Emergency Remote Education (ERE) according to Medicine, Nursing, and Dentistry students

Introduction: Due to the Covid-19 pandemic the Universities had to reinvent themselves and adapt to the new reality. Different versions of Emergency Remote Education (ERE) emerged, in which theoretical classes were taught remotely to the detriment of practice, which would be taught at another time. The discipline of Anatomy, based on practice, needs to undergo adaptations. Practical classes in medicine, dentistry, and nursing were temporarily suspended to be taught in a subsequent period, dissociated from theoretical teaching, and carried out remotely online.

Material and Methods: Interviewed 451 health area students from a public university. All students had completed at least one period of Anatomy at ERE and at least one period in person.

Results: The majority of students, from all courses, did not agree with the usefulness of remote classes, but they participated in online tutoring and students do not seem to believe that remote teaching could lead to insecurity in the application of anatomy in the clinic. There was reported similarity in the effectiveness of remote classes compared to face-to-face classes and a large percentage of medical (n=135) and nursing (n=35) students believe that theoretical classes do not lead to clinical insecurity, unlike dentistry students (n=73) who think so.

Conclusion: In general, the student did not fully approve of the ERE, but did not feel disadvantaged in the teaching of Anatomy, and prefers face-to-face teaching. Most of them attended a monitoring in the ERE, and believe it is most difficult to study practice in Anatomy after theoretical classes.