Design, implementation, and evaluation of a virtual pulmonary rehabilitation training course for medical interns in COVID-19

Abstract

Pulmonary rehabilitation has an influential role in improving the symptoms, reducing subacute and chronic complications, and increasing the performance of patients with COVID-19. Medical interns can play an essential role in training patients. Since, at the time of the research, these concepts were not in the general medical curriculum in Iran, the interns were not trained in this field. This study aimed to design, implement, and evaluate the virtual training course for pulmonary rehabilitation for medical interns in the COVID-19 crisis. A cross-sectional study (with an instructional design approach) was conducted at an academic center in 2021 on 25 medical interns. The newly designed educational content included multimedia files and educational videos offered to the participants. The data collection tools were pre- and post-test, attitude, and satisfaction evaluation questionnaires. Data were analyzed using SPSS (one-sample and paired t-test). The average age of the participants was 26.24 ± 0.92, and most were women (14 (56%)). The average knowledge score after the course (18.52 ± 4.44) compared to before (11.12 ± 2.38) was significant (P < 0.001). The average score of attitudes (55.04 ± 6.49) and satisfaction (92.92 ± 10.69) had a significant difference (P < 0.001 and P < 0.001) and indicated the desirability of the course. Considering the results of this course in improving students’ knowledge, attitude, and satisfaction, it is suggested to add this topic to the general medical curriculum (pulmonary or infectious diseases courses).