Negative effects on medical students’ scores for clinical performance during the COVID-19 pandemic in Taiwan: a comparative study

Purpose: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has heavily impacted medical clinical education in Taiwan. Medical curricula have been altered to minimize exposure and limit transmission. This study investigated the effect of COVID-19 on Taiwanese medical students’ clinical performance using online standardized evaluation systems and explored the factors influencing medical education during the pandemic.Methods: Medical students were scored from 0 to 100 based on their clinical performance from 1/1/2018 to 6/31/2021. The students were placed into pre-COVID-19 (before 2/1/2020) and midst-COVID-19 (on and after 2/1/2020) groups. Each group was further categorized into COVID-19-affected specialties (pulmonary, infectious, and emergency medicine) and other specialties. Generalized estimating equations (GEEs) were used to compare and examine the effects of relevant variables on student performance.Results: In total, 16,944 clinical scores were obtained for COVID-19-affected specialties and other specialties. For the COVID-19-affected specialties, the midst-COVID-19 score (88.513.52) was significantly lower than the pre-COVID-19 score (90.143.55) (P<0.0001). For the other specialties, the midst-COVID-19 score (88.323.68) was also significantly lower than the pre-COVID-19 score (90.063.58) (P<0.0001). There were 1,322 students (837 males and 485 females). Male students had significantly lower scores than female students (89.333.68 vs. 89.993.66, P=0.0017). GEE analysis revealed that the COVID-19 pandemic (unstandardized beta coefficient=-1.99, standard error [SE]=0.13, P<0.0001), COVID-19-affected specialties (B=0.26, SE=0.11, P=0.0184), female students (B=1.10, SE=0.20, P<0.0001), and female attending physicians (B=-0.19, SE=0.08, P=0.0145) were independently associated with students’ scores.Conclusion: COVID-19 negatively impacted medical students' clinical performance, regardless of their specialty. Female students outperformed male students, irrespective of the pandemic.