At Saitama Medical University, experience training for first-year medical students was conducted for the purpose of communicating with people who live in an institution and have severe motor and intellectual disabilities. However, due to the spread of COVID-19, training at this institution has been suspended completely, which has led us to conduct the training remotely. In the remote training sessions, people with disabilities who only had nonverbal communication tools joined a Zoom meeting where they were able to communicate with students from inside the institution. In the past, there have been other times when training was suspended due to infectious disease outbreaks. Despite this, remote training has made it possible to carry out training without being affected by the environment. Compared to conventional training, remote training did not allow students to experience the atmosphere of the institution or interaction with the people on-site. However, it did have other advantages in that it enabled students to understand the disabilities at a deep level, making them realize the importance of nonverbal communication, and increasing their motivation to learn.

At Saitama Medical University, practical training in pharmaceutical service and rehabilitation services is conducted. Due to the spread of COVID-19 infection in 2020, it was difficult for third-year medical students to practice in the actual medical field. For this reason, students have been provided a remote practical training in pharmaceutical service and rehabilitation services, such as watching videos of working situations and interviews for pharmacist, physical therapist, occupational therapist and speech therapist, group works using Zoom, and exchanging questions and answers with those professions. Although student’s levels of readiness were diverse, they could learn more deeply about the roles and perspectives they had not learned previously, compared to conventional practical training. In addition to this effect, the program provided more opportunities for students to deepen their learning. Therefore, in the future, we would like to consider implementing a training program that provides both virtual and onsite experiences.

Students in all years, including those in lower years, were prohibited from coming to campus because of COVID-19, which began to spread in January 2020. However, we believed that a hospital tour and observership would be important practical training for first and second year medical students as part of the early exposure program, which aims to increase student motivation. Thus, we decided to conduct a virtual hospital tour and a virtual observation of medical doctors’ work. We used Zoom to conduct a virtual hospital tour for first-year students in June, and a virtual observation of physicians’ work for second-year students in December. Although this offered less of an opportunity to experience the reality of the clinic, there have been benefits in terms of increased learning content, fairness of learning opportunities delivered, and the promotion of independent learning. With regard to a “Hospital Tour” and the “Observation of Medical Doctors’ Work” , we believe that hybrid forms, which are able to skillfully combine the strengths of the two methods, would be effective.