Students at the William Carey University College of Osteopathic Medicine, headquartered in Hattiesburg, are continuing to receive their education but in modified, nontraditional formats.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, following national guidelines, the medical college has moved its entire educational curriculum online for all students, regardless of where they are at in the four-year program, according to Dr. Italo Subbarao, dean.

At this time, the campus is closed, and students are taking all courses online, said Subbarao.

The transition to online learning has itself been a learning experience for first-year medical students Lindsay Knight Batista of Hattiesburg and Chase Boehmer of Grants Pass, Oregon.

Batista, 24, hopes to match into a pediatrics residency when she completes her education in 2023.

She said the transition to online education was challenging but not terrible.

We have livestreamed lectures as well as voiceover PowerPoints that we can watch from home, so we still have that sense of normalcy that comes with hearing the voices of our professors, she said.

First-year students have two main clinical classes, according to Knight, including Osteopathic Principles and Practice and Clinical Patient Care. Those classes usually have lab components.

(They) no longer have their true lab counterparts, she said. For Osteopathic Principles and Practice, we engage in a weekly one-hour small group meeting to talk over the material. As for (Clinical Patient Care), there is unfortunately not much that we can do aside from practicing on those we have around us.

Boehmer, 30, is interested in emergency medicine, trauma surgery, general surgery, asthma and allergy treatment, and clinical research. Prior to medical school, he worked for five years as a certified clinical research coordinator specializing in respiratory clinical trials.

While the (transition to online classes) has been manageable for most classes, others ... cannot be as easily substituted by an online format, he said. In these classes, the high degree of physical contact is a core component of the educational experience. This also applies to classes with a laboratory component.

Boehmer added that most medical students learn best in hands-on environments.

Online classes just dont have that aspect despite the best efforts of our professors, he said. Having all of our classes moved online is definitely making it more challenging to learn some of the material. For example, it poses a challenge to learn the highly advanced anatomic architecture of the human brain without being able to observe and touch these features on a real specimen.

Knight said she doesnt believe anything can replace an in-person clinical lab.

We rely heavily on those labs to make us knowledgeable and well-practiced future doctors, she said. Without being able to practice our clinical skills regularly, we run the risk of losing some of our fine-detail skills.

Despite the challenges, the two students and their counterparts are making the most of the situation.

As most people know, medical school is extremely challenging, so its best to find what works for your learning style early on and stick to it, said Boehmer. I will say that being forced to adopt a new learning style is a great practice for future encounters as physicians when we are faced with the unpredictable nature of the real world.

Knight said she tries to stay on schedule, practice her clinical skills and continue to study with a group of friends.

Being able to virtually study with my friends makes a huge difference. Knowing that we are all in this together, as well as just seeing their faces through a video chat, really helps to keep me motivated to work hard from home, she said.

Typically, medical students spend the first two years of their four-year education in the classroom and in lab experiences. The final two years of their education are spent in clinical rotations, which are hands-on learning opportunities in hospitals and clinics around the state.

Those opportunities look a lot different in the age of COVID-19, said Subbarao. The dean said those clinical experiences have been paused because of the concerns regarding infectious disease risk, insufficient (personal protective equipment) and still-developing clinical protocols.

The school is adapting its curriculum to fit the situation, he said, and medical school officials are focusing on telemedicine or the practice of caring for patients remotely and public health education.

We are using best practices for online clinical education, said Subbarao. That includes additional education on telemedicine and hosting simulated telemedical encounters with our standardized patients through a video platform. That also includes completing assignments and course modules on public health, COVID and other relevant subjects.

Subbarao said he hopes students can resume clinical rotations in the summer. He added that several medical students from William Carey are currently active in the fight against COVID-19.

Working with the Mississippi State Department of Health, we have allowed some students to support the COVID-19 (phone) hotlines in Jackson and to support contact tracing at other hospital systems in the state, he said.

Some states, including New York, are allowing fourth-year medical students to graduate early and join the ranks of doctors fighting the virus. Subbarao said the schools accreditation agency has allowed for early graduation if needed.

Thankfully, our case counts (in Mississippi) are not the same as in New York ... and so our state has not demanded that of us, he said. Our graduation is set for May 23 ... and our hope is that, if we continue to follow our local and state guidance, early graduation will not be required.

Subbarao said the virus will likely cause delays or adjustments to several other activities at the medical school, including national board exams in the summer and possibly even the start to the new academic year.

We are planning to be flexible as we proceed into our next academic year ... and that means we will be prepared to start online if that is required, he said. We are very fortunate that our recruitment has been minimally impacted for our next academic year. That process itself changed in mid-March when we started to do virtual interviews with our candidates.

The dean said he was very proud of efforts made by students and faculty members to adapt to the challenges brought by COVID-19.

They have been true professionals during this challenging time, he said. Working together, we have adapted, made tweaks ... and I feel pretty good about our delivery and assessment of our educational efforts.

Subbarao said William Carey medical school graduates are contributing to the COVID-19 fight across the country, and he is also proud of those efforts.

We already have over 600 graduates ... and 35 or so who practice in the Pine Belt area, he said. We have Carey grads who are in the New York City area, New Orleans ... and other hot spot areas around the country. They are providing exceptional care during this challenging time.

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William Carey gets creative to keep medical students learning - HubcitySPOKES.com