The future of ward rounds and how we can transform the way our learners learn from ward rounds

Background : Ward rounds is an extremely important learning experience in the medical educational journey. There had previously been many proposed approaches to the conduct of ward rounds and ward round structures published in the literature. The COVID-19 pandemic also challenged the way how ward rounds could be conducted efficiently and how learners could learn effectively. Summary of Work : We critically examined and compared the use of different approaches in the conduct of ward rounds before, during and post COVID-19 pandemic. This includes a comprehensive review of previous approaches to the conduct of ward rounds published in the literature and how ward rounds have changed over the years such as the important use of electronic medical records and chart recalls which works well to facilitate learning during ward rounds. It was also observed that the COVID-19 pandemic posed new challenges such as reduction in the duration of ward rounds due to the need to reduce exposure time to patients, reduction in the number of healthcare workers to conduct the ward rounds due to COVID-19 infection, home quarantine or lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) supplies and restriction of students from inpatient rotations. Summary of Results : Based on the review, it is proposed that the sequential use of pre-ward round meeting followed by ward round and post-ward round meeting provides the most effective outcomes of learning before, during and post COVID-19 pandemic and may be considered best practice. The use of virtual ward rounds and robotic-assisted ward rounds during the COVID-19 pandemic also provided a novel technological approach to enable the continued conduct of ward rounds while at the same time reducing the risk of COVID-19 exposure to healthcare workers and students. Discussion and Conclusion : Ward rounds continue to be a critical component of a learner’s educational journey. With the end of the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide, lessons learnt from the COVID-19 pandemic challenges us to transform and reimagine the way we conduct our ward rounds in the “new normal” and in an innovative way so as to improve the learning value and outcomes for our learners.