Mentoring can help leaders to develop a critical consciousness which incorporates a critical analysis that fosters understanding of structural and institutional stances that impact social determinants of health, access to healthcare, and health outcomes.
The COVID‐19 pandemic has dramatically affected the way that healthcare is delivered in the United States and has likewise affected the way that health professions education is taught. This article reports a case study of a cohort‐based health professions education program that was forced to transition from a blended model to a fully virtual synchronous model and the effects of that transition on learners and educators. These courses are grounded in experiential learning, and the program overall aims to develop a community of practice that extends beyond program completion. The authors reflected on online observations as well as their own experiences in these courses. We argue learners were still able to move through Kolb's stages of experiential learning. Analysis also indicates that the transition and the unique stressors of the COVID‐19 pandemic may have expanded and strengthened a burgeoning community of practice.
The COVID-19 pandemic shut down undergraduate research programs across the U.S. Twenty-three sites offered remote undergraduate research programs in the life sciences during summer 2020. Given the unprecedented offering of remote research experiences, we carried out a study to describe and evaluate these programs. Using structured templates, we documented how programs were designed and implemented, including who participated. Through focus groups and surveys, we identified programmatic strengths and shortcomings as well as recommendations for improvements from the perspectives of participating students. Strengths included the quality of mentorship, opportunities for learning and professional development, and development of a sense of community. Weaknesses included limited cohort building, challenges with insufficient structure, and issues with technology. Although all programs had one or more activities related to diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice, these topics were largely absent from student reports even though programs coincided with a peak in national consciousness about racial inequities and structural racism. Our results provide evidence for designing remote REUs that are experienced favorably by students. Our results also indicate that remote REUs are sufficiently positive to further investigate their affordances and constraints, including the potential to scale up offerings, with minimal concern about disenfranchising students.
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