Key Issues and Lessons Learned from the Online Implementation During COVID‐19 of a Patient Engagement Intervention in Medical Education
In 2019–2021, our research team at the Faculty of Medicine, Université Laval, developed an intervention to get patients with diverse socioeconomic and health profiles actively involved in discussion workshops that form part of a mandatory undergraduate medical course. The goal of the intervention was to foster the development of reflexivity among the students. In the winter of 2020, due to the COVID‐19 pandemic, all university training activities pivoted to online delivery, and the intervention had to be adapted for this new context. The purpose of this article is to outline the key issues and lessons learned from the online shift of our intervention that may have influenced its effects. These issues mainly concern patients’ access to the participatory space and the learning relationship. Information and communication technologies (ICT) have become the dominant means of interacting, participating and learning in the context of COVID‐19, often through new practices and tools. The proposed discussion will contribute to a better understanding of the pedagogical implications of these practices.