COVID‐19 pandemic: Beyond medical education in Brazil

To the Editor,

COVID‐19 pandemic is forcing the world to experience a peculiar situation of life‐threatening, social isolation, and important economic issues. This is a time when our current concepts about life, society, and the relationship with technology are being rethought. ¹

The current pandemic has also brought new challenges to medical education in general (eg, physicians, nurses, physical therapists, and pharmaceuticals). As the global emergency grows the need for well‐trained staff becomes one of the main focus of universities, hospitals, and government. ² Unfortunately, in emerging countries, there are more challenges to face to educate these professionals in this unprecedented adverse scenario. ³

In Brazil, a developing country, the public healthcare system is known to work almost at the maximum of its capacity, which makes the population fear the tragic consequences of COVID‐19 pandemic. The majority of healthcare education (internships and residency programs) in Brazil is still located at public services. Online education and the wide use of high technology is not a reality in our educational environment. It seems that our traditional medical education does not follow the new generation's language and way of leaning.

During an exponential increase in COVID‐19 in Brazil, a change in our education system is necessary to minimize the possible staff deficit and to avoid massive contamination of students. ⁴ Moreover, online education could be very helpful to enhance experiences and information between hospitals/universities in this very large and unequal country. Improving knowledge exchange and avoiding contamination makes perfect sense in the COVID‐19 pandemic. However, online education requires an important investment in structure and human resources. ⁵ , ⁶ In a recent article, Newman and Lattouf brilliantly showed the concern about medical education during the COVID‐19 pandemic and the necessity of adaptation through technological innovation. However, in a developing country, like Brazil, this scenario is more challenging.

Brazil continuous to face an important educational deficiency. Historically, public high‐quality education, in general, has not been taken as a high priority. During this pandemic, we notice that private educational institutions are, somehow, continuing with their calendar in the online version. However, we see public institutions, like ours, having difficulties in functioning. Not only due to the lack of infrastructure but, our institution, as well as in many others throughout Brazil, have a considerable amount of students in social vulnerability what makes the continuity of educational activities much more challenging. Public universities in Brazil, in addition to social commitment, have a recognized role in teaching and research. It is time to rethink and modernize our public education system and guarantee equal educational access to our socially vulnerable students.

The temporary suspension of academic activities and the lack of use of modern educational tools can be very harmful to a developing country struggling with COVID‐19. This pandemic is showing how fragile our public educational policies have historically been. In this scenario, we see the Brazilian population keep asking themselves three major questions: Can we handle this pandemic and its consequences? What are we learning from this pandemic to improve our educational system and public health? Can we handle future outbreaks in a globalized world?

CONFLICT OF INTERESTS

The authors declare that there are no conflict of interests.