Surgical Stasis: Anomalies & Scarcities in Surgical Residents Training in the Covid-19 Period
Paul Vladimir Ciobotaru, Anca Nica, Alexandru Carâp, Alexandru Smaranda, Cristiana Bogaciu, Roxana Crăciun, Vlad Georgeanu, Bogdan Socea, Vlad Denis ConstantinOriginal article, no. 1, 2022
Article DOI: 10.21614/chirurgia.2668
Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a marked decrease in surgical procedures performed worldwide and to numerous other changes in medical practice. We investigated the effect of these changes on surgical trainees.
Method: We searched medical records and asked a total of 67 surgical residents from different specialities (general surgery, obstetrics-gynecology, orthopedics-traumatology, neurosurgery) to answer a questionnaire investigating how the total number of surgical procedures and operative role varied for each respondent during the pandemic, the number of medical congresses and handson courses they attended during this time, how much study time was available to them and how the changes in their training modules affected them.
Results: Most respondents reported a marked decrease in the number of surgical procedures performed, performing key operative steps with a lower frequency. Most of them believed that their training stagnated or suffered a setback. However, most residents consider the changes in their training during the pandemic a useful experience.
Conclusion: The real effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on surgical training should be further studied. Future prospective studies should identify threshold values for each surgical procedure and the most effective compensatory strategies.
Method: We searched medical records and asked a total of 67 surgical residents from different specialities (general surgery, obstetrics-gynecology, orthopedics-traumatology, neurosurgery) to answer a questionnaire investigating how the total number of surgical procedures and operative role varied for each respondent during the pandemic, the number of medical congresses and handson courses they attended during this time, how much study time was available to them and how the changes in their training modules affected them.
Results: Most respondents reported a marked decrease in the number of surgical procedures performed, performing key operative steps with a lower frequency. Most of them believed that their training stagnated or suffered a setback. However, most residents consider the changes in their training during the pandemic a useful experience.
Conclusion: The real effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on surgical training should be further studied. Future prospective studies should identify threshold values for each surgical procedure and the most effective compensatory strategies.
Keywords: COVID-19, surgical resident, surgical training
