Forced Hands: The Emergent Adjustments to the Internship Training Program of the Department of Medicine, University of the Philippines – Philippine General Hospital in the Face of the COVID-19 Enhanced Community Quarantine

The COVID-19 pandemic adversely affected the delivery of medical education in the University of the Philippines – Philippine General Hospital. With the onset of the lockdown and the suspension of classes, all levels of medical school education were affected. The cautious resumption of educational activities at the beginning of May, 2020 forced major adjustments in the educational strategies of the college in order to complete the requirements of the second semester. These effects where strongly felt at the level of Learning Unit 7, the clinical internship program, where students not only had to complete second semester requirements, but also prepare for graduation and the upcoming board exams as well. The loss of face-to-face interaction and direct patient contact were major setbacks in accomplishing these goals and forced the department to shift to mainly online and asynchronous teaching and learning activities. However, these were also plagued by difficulties, paramount of which was the unreliable internet infrastructure in the country that hampered the access of many interns to online materials. This paper describes the efforts of the Department of Medicine’s Learning Unit 7 committee to address the problems posed by the enhanced community quarantine period