Investigation of the contribution of internet-based distance education to the emergency medicine assistant program and its impact on assistants

Objective: In our study, it was aimed to evaluate the perspective, satisfaction level and recommendations of Emergency Medicine research assistant physicians for distance education; to develop distance education methods in accordance with the obtained data and to configure them in a way that they can be used more actively. Method: Continuing specialization training with the distance education system due to the COVID-19 pandemic at Karadeniz Technical University (KTU) Health Practice-Research Center Farabi Hospital, Health Sciences University Trabzon Kanuni Training-Research Hospital (SBU KEAH) and Kırıkkale University Medical Faculty Hospital Emergency Medicine Departments. It is a survey study conducted with the participation of research assistant physicians. The data collection form (Introduction Form, Satisfaction Scale for E-Courses, Distance Education Students' Views of Distance Education Scale) created by the researchers using the Google forms tool was sent to the research assistant physicians working in the Emergency Medicine Departments using the WhatsApp application. SPSS 23 (Statistical Package of Social Sciences) program was used for data analysis. Qualitative data were evaluated with the chi-square test. In order to evaluate the statistical significance of the results, the confidence interval was accepted as 95% (p<0.05). Results: 62.5% (n=45) of the participants were male and 37.5% (n=27) were female. The mean age of the participating physicians was determined as 28.75±3.3 years (min=25, max=40). 68.1% (n=49) of the participants in the study had previously experienced internet-based distance education. The scale in which the participants' views on distance education are evaluated consists of 4 topics including 'personal fitness, effectiveness, teaching and predisposition' and a total of 19 questions. When the answer options of the five-point likert-type questionnaire were scored from 0 to 4, the average score was 37.6; the highest score was found to be 57 and the lowest score was found to be 7. Participants evaluated the level of satisfaction with distance education scale; 'materials and communication tools, student-teacher interaction, Environment Design, E-class attitude, course content and teaching process, including a total of 5 titles and consists of 39 questions. When the answer options of the five-point likert-type questionnaire were scored from 0 to 4, the average score was 87.1; the highest score was 134 and the lowest score was 0. The variables of the year of december, gender, marital status and whether there was previous distance education experience did not have a significant difference in the 95% confidence interval on the results obtained from the scales. 62.5% (n=45) of the emergency medicine research assistant physicians participating in the study preferred traditional face-to-face training. Conclusion: Although remote internet-based education has a positive effect on specialty students in emergency medicine specialty education, traditional face-to-face education is preferred more. Keywords: Distance learning, Emergency Medicine specialist, traditional education.