Application of PDCA Cycle Management for Postgraduate Medical Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract Background: The COVID-19 outbreak has had an enormous impact on various industries around the world. As postgraduate students in clinical medicine have both student and resident identity characteristics, Peking University Third Hospital (PUTH), as a university-affiliated hospital for cultivating future medical talent, has been facing unprecedented challenges in regard to the management of postgraduate medical students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore the management effect from PDCA cycle management on postgraduate medical students during the COVID-19 outbreak.Methods: The methods of document review, questionnaire surveys and interviews were used to continuously improve the management measures of postgraduate medical students during the COVID-19 pandemic by using the PDCA cycle.Results: Investigations were conducted on the management system, back-to-school arrangements, COVID-19 prevention and control training, online teaching, mentoring, laboratory management, dissertation progress, and emotional state of postgraduate medical students during the COVID-19 pandemic. We found that strengthening public health management knowledge training, increasing infectious-disease-related knowledge training, innovating online teaching methods, improving PDCA management model maps, and formulating improvement programmes are conducive to improving the quality of such management.Conclusion: Aiming at the difficult problems involved in the management of postgraduate medical students during the COVID-19 pandemic, managers need to comprehensively consider and conduct overall planning and use the PDCA management model to improve the management of postgraduate medical students during the COVID-19 pandemic.