Influence of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Higher Education Courses in the Health Field

Costa Pereira Rodrigues, Vitor Manuel

It is a fact that no one expected what took place in the world as of the end of 2019. And yes, I am talking about the ill-fated, damned and inconvenient COVID-19, which quickly spread around the globe, having been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization in March 2020.(1) In the face of such a threat, not virtual, but very real, the need existed to undertake various measures that could interrupt the transmission of the infection by implementing, for example, restrictions on the movement of people, social distancing, use of personal protective equipment, measures of respiratory protocol, social confinement, among others.(2) Education, namely, higher education, also suffered immensely the consequences of COVID-19, right from the start, because there was a cessation of all classroom teaching activity, practically all over the world, which caused major modifications/alterations in the teaching-learning process.(3) From the outset, closing of Higher Education Institutions, globally, caused severe changes in teaching-learning processes because measures of social distancing and circulation restrictions were imposed.(4,5)