train our students on how to use technology to interact appropriately with patients ,” Nemitz says .
Medical professionals ’ improved ability to deliver services , such as mental health consulting by telehealth has profound implications for services rendered to rural , isolated areas .
“ As a result , training in telehealth will increase for medical students ,” says Nemitz .
COVID-19 also significantly sped up the adoption of remote learning , and many of those changes will continue into a post-pandemic education landscape .
“ Technology is definitely playing a larger role in medical education , which will continue to impact medical students ,” Nemitz says . “ This includes the delivery of virtual instruction , whether it is as a medical student for a course or for a practicing physician as continuing medical education .”
According to Dr . Sarah Armstrong Tucker , chancellor of the West Virginia Community and Technical College System and the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission , college classes will probably be more flexible regarding inperson attendance going forward as a result of the pandemic .
“ We ’ ve heard very clearly from our students that they miss being in person and they want to be on a college campus ,” she says . “ But they also enjoy the flexibility of not necessarily having to be there every single day of the week , every single hour .”
The pandemic also underscored for Tucker the idea that not all meetings must be face to face .
“ Our ability to collaborate virtually has changed ,” she says . “ I ’ m not going to give up face-to-face meetings and interactions . They ’ re important . But now you ’ re able to hop on a team meeting a lot faster . It ’ s a lot easier to get 20 minutes of people ’ s time than several hours that include travel time . It ’ s really opened our ability to collaborate and make decisions in the moment in a way that is more efficient and effective for our students .”
However , while advancing the use of remote collaboration , COVID-19 has also painfully highlighted West Virginia ’ s need to expand broadband access .
Tucker applauds Governor Jim Justice for initiating the Kids Connect program , where all public schools , higher education institutions , county libraries and state parks will be turned into Wi-Fi hotspots .
“ The lack of broadband access in our state has proved an impediment to learning ,” she says . “ Our low-income students are significantly less likely to have access to broadband , which means their learning loss is greater .”
Not surprisingly , however , the COVID-19 crisis also brought out the best in West Virginians .
“ The first thing you saw in West Virginia was people trying to figure out how they could help with the crisis ,” says Tucker . “ We had all our schools donate all of their personal protective equipment to their local hospitals and nursing homes to try and make sure our care workers were taken care of . We started a program where our health sciences students were able to give vaccinations and help test folks for COVID-19 so their local health departments weren ’ t so taxed . We really came together as a state and did what West Virginians do best , which is to help one another .” •
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