ERIC Number: EJ1461039
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2025-Jan
Pages: 9
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-2730-5937
EISSN: EISSN-2730-5945
Available Date: 2024-08-12
Insights from a Virtual Clinical Immersion Program
Ellen P. Brennan-Pierce1; Susan G. Stanton2; Julie A. Dunn2
Biomedical Engineering Education, v5 n1 p37-45 2025
Clinical immersion programs provide opportunities for biomedical engineering (BME) students to observe the clinical environment and medical devices in use, often leading to the identification of unmet clinical needs. Due to hospital restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic, in-person clinical immersion programs were generally not possible in summer 2020. Therefore, a 6-week virtual clinical immersion program ran that summer. The program included meetings with guest clinicians and medical device sales representatives twice per week and a group discussion held once per week. The meetings incorporated de-identified videos of medical procedures, clinician commentary of the videos, live video tours of hospital areas, clinician presentations, presentations and demonstrations by medical device sales representatives, and opportunities for discussions with these guests. The meetings were recorded and saved to create a Virtual Clinical Immersion Library. Pre- and post-program student self-assessment surveys showed significant increases in five ABET learning outcomes, two BME learning outcomes, and four program-specific learning outcomes. Post-graduation survey results of alumni from this program showed that all respondents had secured a job in the biomedical/engineering field or postgraduate education less than 3 months after graduation. These alumni are currently employed in the fields of biomedical products, healthcare, research and development, higher education, biotech, consulting, pharmaceutical, and other engineering. Overall, this virtual clinical immersion program filled a gap caused by COVID-19 pandemic closures and provided many benefits to the students that participated. The virtual program also provides an enduring library of video resources for current and future BME students.
Descriptors: Biomedicine, COVID-19, Pandemics, Technology Uses in Education, Clinical Experience, Summer Programs, Alumni, Attitudes, Engineering Education, College Students
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: R25EB025791
Author Affiliations: 1Colorado State University, School of Biomedical Engineering, Fort Collins, USA; 2UCHealth North, Medical Center of the Rockies, Loveland, USA