PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Deirdre Wallace AU - Alison Sturrock AU - Faye Gishen TI - ‘You've got mail!’: Clinical and practical skills teaching re-imagined during COVID-19 AID - 10.7861/fhj.2020-0231 DP - 2021 Jan 05 TA - Future Healthcare Journal PG - fhj.2020-0231 4099 - http://www.rcpjournals.org/content/early/2021/01/04/fhj.2020-0231.short 4100 - http://www.rcpjournals.org/content/early/2021/01/04/fhj.2020-0231.full AB - With the outbreak of COVID-19, there was widespread cessation of face-to-face teaching in medical schools from March 2020. 130 students in their first clinical year at a large London medical school were at risk of missing part of their clinical and practical procedure teaching. We mailed a teaching pack containing clinical consumables and gave instructions to prepare fruit, vegetables and kitchen sponges as a replacement for manikins. Students used cucumbers for bladder catheterisation, oranges for injections, bananas for suturing and cannulated sponges for practising intravenous drug administration. A student evaluation after the course was favourable. Hands-on practice had a positive effect on the students' feelings of belongingness and identity and helped them feel like they were not missing out or being left behind. Technology was challenging for both students and tutors. The intervention is being repeated for all incoming students from September 2020.