TABLE 1.

Responses from second‐year students, who were asked about the impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on their preclinical learning, and from third‐ and fourth‐year students, who were asked about the impact of the pandemic on their clinical learning

Preclinical Learning
Theme	Representative quotes
Lack of hands‐on practice/ access to preclinical lab	“I feel my preclinical education has been severely compromised by the COVID situation.” “It's impossible to expect the same effect of learning without the hands‐on component.”
Fatigue from online learning/ difficulty focusing	“Staring at a computer screen all day is exhausting and I can't pay as much attention as usual.”
Difficult to retain, visualize, or understand materials with the current teaching methods	“[It's] not possible to practice pre‐clinical applications of the didactic things that we are learning. This makes for a shallower understanding and lower retention of some of the concepts.” “Learning hands‐on procedures and understanding complex topics requires in‐person, face‐to‐face interaction – any substitution is suboptimal and likely results in frequent misunderstanding, frustration and stress.”

Clinical Learning
Theme	Representative quotes
Lack of hands‐on, clinical experience	“I feel like my clinical learning has greatly diminished. Clinical learning requires hands‐on activities, whether with patients or in the lab.” “Nothing can replace seeing patients, so my education quality has significantly declined.”
Virtual case presentations teach critical thinking but cannot replace hands‐on experiences	“It feels like it is at a halt; no technical skills and practice going on, however critical thinking skills are being built via case discussions.” “I feel like I'm still learning as many concepts as I would be in [the] clinic because of the 4th year case presentations especially.”