Chinese medical students' interest in COVID-19 pandemic

Nan-Ze Yu; Zhi-Jin Li; Yu-Ming Chong; Yuan Xu; Jun-Ping Fan; Yang Yang; Yue Teng; Yu-Wei Zhang; Wen-Chao Zhang; Ming-Zi Zhang; Jiu-Zuo Huang; Xiao-Jun Wang; Shu-Yang Zhang; Xiao Long

doi:10.5501/wjv.v9.i3.38

Chinese medical students' interest in COVID-19 pandemic

World J Virol. 2020 Sep 25;9(3):38-46. doi: 10.5501/wjv.v9.i3.38.

Authors

Nan-Ze Yu¹, Zhi-Jin Li¹, Yu-Ming Chong¹, Yuan Xu², Jun-Ping Fan³, Yang Yang⁴, Yue Teng¹, Yu-Wei Zhang¹, Wen-Chao Zhang¹, Ming-Zi Zhang¹, Jiu-Zuo Huang¹, Xiao-Jun Wang¹, Shu-Yang Zhang⁵, Xiao Long⁶

Affiliations

¹ Department of Plastic Surgery, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100730, China.
² Department of Thoracic Surgery, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100730, China.
³ Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100730, China.
⁴ Department of Orthopaedics, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100730, China.
⁵ Department of Cardiology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100730, China.
⁶ Department of Plastic Surgery, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100730, China. pumclongxiao@126.com.

Abstract

Background: The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) happened in early December and it has affected China in more ways than one. The societal response to the pandemic restricted medical students to their homes. Although students cannot learn about COVID-19 through clinical practice, they can still pay attention to news of COVID-19 through various channels. Although, as suggested by previous studies, some medical students have already volunteered to serve during the COVID-19 pandemic, the overall willingness of Chinese medical students to volunteer for such has not been systematically examined.

Aim: To study Chinese medical students' interest in the relevant knowledge on COVID-19 and what roles they want to play in the pandemic.

Methods: Medical students at Peking Union Medical College were surveyed via a web-based questionnaire to obtain data on the extent of interest in the relevant knowledge on COVID-19, attitude towards volunteerism in the pandemic, and career preference. Logistic regression modeling was used to investigate possible factors that could encourage volunteerism among this group in a pandemic.

Results: A total of 552 medical students responded. Most medical students showed a huge interest in COVID-19. The extent of students' interest in COVID-19 varied among different student-classes (P < 0.05). Senior students had higher scores than the other two classes. The number of people who were 'glad to volunteer' in COVID-19 represented 85.6% of the respondents. What these students expressed willingness to undertake involved direct, indirect, and administrative job activities. Logistic regression analysis identified two factors that negatively influenced volunteering in the pandemic: Student-class and hazards of the voluntary job. Factors that positively influenced volunteering were time to watch COVID-19 news, predictable impact on China, and moral responsibility.

Conclusion: More innovative methods can be explored to increase Chinese medical students' interest in reading about the relevant knowledge on COVID-19 and doing voluntary jobs during the pandemic.

Keywords: COVID-19; Chinese medical students; Medical education; Public health emergency of international concern; Volunteer.