COVID – 19 and psychiatry teaching during the outbreak of the pandemic at the Eduardo Mondlane Medical School

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic had a considerable impact on the lives of the world's population, which led to the closure of educational institutions including in Mozambique. In March 2020, the state emergency forced students and professors to change in-person classes to online learning because of the pandemic. Objectives: To access students’ capacities in terms of technological resources to participate in the 5th-year online classes of the Eduardo Mondlane University Medical School and the difficulties they encountered throughout the year. Additionally, psychological symptoms associated with confinement and how that affected participation in psychiatry and mental health classes were assessed. Methods: A cross sectional social online questionnaire survey was conducted among 32 students enrolled in the 5th-year psychiatry and mental health classes of the Eduardo Mondlane University Medical School during May and June 2021. Results: A total of 47 students were invited to participate in this survey, of which 32 students (68%) participated. Of the participants, 16.7% reported the presence of psychological symptoms associated with confinement. All students could participate in online classes using cell phones, computers, and tablets. However, 34.4% did not have a laptop. In this study, 87.5% of the respondents reported poor internet quality, and 12.5% ​​of students did not have internet and had to join colleagues to participate in classes and to interact with the members of their groups. Most of the students (90.6%) were not prepared or knew how to use google classroom, Skype, and Zoom, before the lockdowns. Conclusions: The study suggests that the abrupt and radical change from in-person teaching and learning methods to remote online methods showed the weaknesses of students in terms of resources (computers, tablets, internet) and knowledge for the implementation of online classes. Psychological symptoms were present but did not affect student participation in remote psychiatry and mental health classes.