Covid-19 and the medical student: how are our clinical clerkship students participating?

Abstract: Introduction: COVID-19, a new acute infectious disease caused by SARS-Cov-2, discovered in China in December 2019, is currently characterized by the WHO as a pandemic. The social distancing measures implemented around the world have had a major impact on various sectors, in particular, education. The changes that have occurred in Brazil in the context of higher education courses have had a significant effect on the clinical clerkship activities conducted by medical students. Objective: The study sought to identify the main changes caused in clinical clerkships and the view of those clerkship students in light of such changes. Method: A questionnaire was devised on Google Forms about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on clerkship activities. The research sample consisted of clerkship students from public and private universities in Fortaleza. The collected data were stored in Excel spreadsheets and then analyzed using the SPSS software. The chi-square test and the linear association test were used to assess the association between the nominal and ordinal categorical variables. In some comparisons Cramer’s V was also calculated. The level of significance for all tests was considered based on p