Educational perspective for the identification of essential competencies required for approaching patients with COVID-19

Background: Health professionals are at the frontline of the COVID-19 pandemic and are directly exposed to infection hazards. Therefore, they should have the essential competencies for approaching patients. Aims: The study aimed to identify essential competencies required for approaching patients with COVID-19. Methods: All postgraduate health professionals at the Syrian Virtual University SVU (n=28) were invited to participate in the study during the Covid-19 lockdown in 2020, resulting in 20 postgraduates accepting. The Delphi technique was adopted for identifying competencies in medical education and a virtual meeting was undertaken through the University Management System in order to provide instruction and create a list of competencies. Competency domains were divided into 'knowledge', 'skills', and 'attitudes' and were classified into four categories: etiology, assessment and diagnosis, management, and prognosis. Results: Fifty-two essential competencies were identified; 7 competencies on etiology, 7 related to assessment and diagnosis, 34 related to management, and 4 related to prognosis Conclusion: It is hoped that the identified competencies would help health professionals to deliver the best health care for COVI-19 patients, as well as help policy-makers to support comprehensive training programmes that can equip health professionals with the required competencies to fight the pandemic.