Knowledge, attitudes, social responsibilities and career plans toward Corona Virus Disease 2019 (Covid-19) among Chinese clinical medical students

Abstract Purpose: To assess knowledge, attitudes and social responsibilities toward Covid-19 among Chinese clinical medical students. Method: Self-administered questionnaires were used to collect data for 889 clinical medical students from 3 well-known Chinese medical universities. The questionnaire was comprised of three domains which consisted of 7 items for knowledge, 5 items for attitudes and social responsibilities and 4 items for career planning. Results: It was found that 47.2%, 46.9% of the clinical medical students were willing to be volunteers in Hubei Province or stick to their own hospitals if they had been back to work, mainly because of responsibilities of doctors(92.7%). About 74.1% of the participants had a clear career plan for the future. 12.5% of the participants preferred several departments with the heaviest workload during the outbreak(Department of infectious disease, 1.2%; Department of respiration, 3.6%; ICU or emergency, 7.7%). Besides, students at clinical learning stage mastered better than basic learning students in the knowledge of Covid-19 especially in clinical manifestations(p < 0.001). There were significant differences between graduated and new-enrolled medical students in the attitudes of becoming a front-line doctor of Wuhan and the professional happiness of doctors(p < 0.001). Conclusions: Students at clinical learning stage mastered better than basic learning students in the knowledge of Covid-19 especially in clinical manifestations. The expectations of professional happiness and social responsibilities in new-enrolled clinical medical students were higher than those in graduated medical students which could be easily influenced and had no relation with different clinical major. Therefore, future strategies for medical education reform in China should focus on keeping the professional identity and sense of belonging of medical students.