PECULIARITIES OF CONDUCTING OF STATE ATTESTATION OF GRADUATES OF MEDICAL UNIVERSITIES UNDER THE CONDITIONS OF QUARANTINE LIMITATIONS

Abstract

Nowadays information and telecommunication technologies have become an integral part of the educational process in many higher education ertablishments. It was the usage of modern technologies that helped higher education institutions to continue their distance learning in the maximum voleme during the forced quarantine, caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the possibility of accomplished organization and implementation of the online educational process is still debatable, especially among the scientific and pedagogical community of teachers of medical educational establishments. One of the most important problems in teaching and assessing the quality of knowledge of students in medical health care is the practical orientation of most specialties and competencies. Therefore, the purpose of our study was to describe the methodology of the exam and analyze its effectiveness by interviewing both students and examinators. In developing the methodology of the exam, special attention was paid to testing clinical thinking and practice-oriented competencies of students through the use of specially designed virtual simulated patients, whose role was performed by examinators, as well as situational tasks for emergency diagnosis and emergency care. After the exam, 166 graduates and 28 examiners were interviewed anonymously. The majority of applicants (72 % of respondents) evaluated the exam in the distance format in a positive way, and the examinators assessed the methodology and the exam as good (36 %) or satisfactory (43 %). In general, the results of the study indicate the possibility of conducting a practical exam in the online format while maintaining a sufficient level of assessment of the quality of knowledge and skills of graduates.