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Students science: virtual scientific students congress in COVID-19

*Corresponding author: sahilyrp@nauta.cu

Since the first case reported at the end of 2019, Covid-19 spread across the world, with repercussions in every sphere of society. Health and education, as well as their respective branches and spheres, can be exposed as the most affected; the former because of the need for the creation of treatments, protocols and specialized care and the latter because of the need to leave the usual teaching scenarios (classrooms) to implement strategies such as distance education. Cuba, with a privileged health care and educational system, has maintained medical teaching by taking advantage of in service education.

The current Cuban medical university has fostered the research work of the student body over the years. This is manifested in the student scientific journals and the existence of Student Scientific Meetings (SScM), from the institutional to the national level.(1) Covid-19 has affected the development of student research activities by making it impossible to carry out the usual research cycle and planned national student meetings.

Student Scientific Meetings are one of the most important extracurricular activities in which the student participates. These meetings provide them with the opportunity to prove the skills acquired during the academic course with respect to scientific research, prepare them for their future life, in addition to leading them towards the publication of their investigative results.(2) Dealing with this change in the usual dynamics of the research cycles, the right decision was made to create Virtual Student Scientific Meetings, a strategy that has been implemented in many Cuban Universities of Medical Sciences. Although this alternative does not allow students to defend their research projects in person, it provides the motivation for their own development and allows the progress of young science.

Student scientific journals have played an important role in the integration and development of these events, serving as their scientific committees. This allows that the awarded papers, and those with the required quality, are incorporated into the editorial processes and published, as a stimulus and at the same time instruction for the future.

Although this new dynamic is not expected by those with more years in the medical university, it constitutes a valid alternative to keep student scientific research active. The authors consider it is necessary for universities to integrate this modality, in order to offer to their students an alternative, because the usual one has been limited by Covid-19 pandemic.

CONFLICT OF INTERESTS

The authordeclare there are not conflicts of interests.

AUTHORSHIP CONTRIBUTION

The authors carried out the conceptualization, writing-initial drafting, writing-revision and edition of the article.

FUNDING

The authors received no funding for the development of the present research.

Referencias

1. Benitez-Rojas LdlC. Publicar en el pregrado y revistas científicas estudiantiles, la solución integral de un problema. Spimed [Internet]. 2020 [citado 10/09/2020]; 1(1):e2. Disponible en: http://revspimed.sld.cu/index.php/spimed/article/view/2

Referencias

2. Benítez-Rojas LdlC, Nieves-Cuadrado JC, Rodríguez-González N, Benítez-Rojas AR, Rojas-Pérez SdlC. Producción científica estudiantil a través del II Evento Científico Estudiantil Nacional de Oncohematología ONCOFORUM 2019. Revista EsTuSalud [Internet]. 2019 [citado 10/09/2020]; 1(1):e12. Disponible en :http://revestusalud.sld.cu/index.php/estusalud/article/view/12

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