Impact of the Pandemic on the Perception of the Professional Role of Doctor Among Medical Students

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has made significant adjustments to the understanding of the state and functioning of modern healthcare system in many countries of the world. The issues of the correlation between rationalization and commercialization of the medical sphere on the one hand and the requirements of selfless help and moral response from doctors on the other hand have become not just a matter of public debate, but a real challenge to the medical community. Students of medical specialties found themselves in a special situation. They got under the pressure of two causal complexes, namely, transformations in the educational process and the heavy burden of social and personal responsibility in the mobilization of the medical sphere.

The paper focuses on the analysis of the following issues: reactions to emergency mobilization to combat COVID-19; acceptance of new technologies in medical education and clinical practice; transformation of the meanings of the professional role of a doctor among medical students; the moral side of the profession and subjective meanings of medical profession; the impact of the religious factor and demand for volunteer activities of medical students. A sociological study of mixed design was conducted in February—May 2022 and included the representative survey of students of medical faculties of Kazan and Moscow (N= 2084), 12 expert interviews with residents, teachers, and doctors, and 2 focus groups with medical students.

The pandemic has demonstrated an unsatisfactory degree of acceptability of remote teaching methods for medical specialties. Medical education has traditionally been associated with training in a clinical setting. Students and teachers had to adapt to the urgent introduction of distance learning and treatment, including the use of digital forms and tools. Medical students found themselves in a difficult situation of changing the traditional meanings of the medical profession. The pandemic redefined the status and meanings of medical profession, giving rise to the ambiguity of the choice between moral tasks and rational benefit; emphasized the disadvantages and benefits of digital education; highlighted the inability of commercialized medicine to cope with the challenges of the pandemic. The experience of participating in the medical volunteer movement has become popular in dealing with covid patients. Preliminary practical experience of providing medical care has been identified as the main parameter of positive response to the call and participation in the work of «red zones». Medical students have a polarized attitude to emergency mobilization to combat COVID-19. The complex epidemiological situation has had an impact on the prestige of the medical profession, but at the same time, it has exacerbated its moral burden including the increased demands of patients for emotional involvement of doctors.

Acknowledgments. The authors express their sincere gratitude to our colleagues for their help in organizing the field stage of the study: Director of the Institute of Medicine, RUDN University, Prof. A. Yu. Abramov; Rector of Kazan State Medical University (SMU), Prof. A. S. Sozinov; Vice-Rector for Youth Policy at the Kazan SMU, Assoc. Prof. A. R. Zalyaev; Director of the Institute of Fundamental Medicine and Biology, Kazan Federal University, Prof. A. P. Kiasov; Deputy Director for Education in Medicine of the Institute of Fundamental Medicine and Biology, KFU, Assoc. Prof. A. I. Andreeva; Director of Kazan Medical College Z. A. Khisamutdinova; Deputy Director for Education of Kazan Medical College G. F. Giliazova. The authors express special gratitude to Assoc. Prof. at the Department of Bioethics, Medical Law and History of Medicine, Kazan SMU, O. M. Smirnova for assistance at all stages of the study.

The article is presented within the framework of the implementation of the project of the EISI and the Ministry of Education and Science FSSF-2022-0040 «Russian identity: political meanings and indicators of value consolidation».