Introduction: The two schools for occupational health in the Netherlands(NSPOH and SGBO) both offer a Medical Master program in occupational health. Within a week after the national announcement of the lockdown the schools transformed more than 80 percent of all classes into online education (493 residents). Materials and Methods: Assignments were developed about knowledge on Covid-19 and about the impact on daily practice and existing assignments were redesigned. Expert-trainers and educators of the schools participated in teach-the-teachers workshops in online education. All education between march 2020 and 2021 was evaluated. Not only residents but also teachers were asked to evaluate their experience with online education. Expectations for future methods in education were addressed in a separate survey. Results and Conclusions: Residents appreciated online education better than the previously physical education. The education-evaluation score went up from 7.4 to 7.9 out of 10. The assignments contributed to development of ‘reflective practitioners’. Residents were relieved that they could continue their education without delay while maintaining educational quality. They acquired skills otherwise not developed such as intensive online collaboration or online-peer group intervision. Smaller group sizes with disciplined structure led to improvement of in-depth-learning through more efficient peer-knowledge-exchange. The lack of social face-to face contact (‘coffee-machine learning') was the greatest challenge. According to a recent survey residents prefer a mix of 80% online and 20% face-to-face education in the future.
Riding the wave of educational transformation in the Covid-19 Pandemic: Covid-19 Pandemic as a catalyst in innovative education for occupational health residents