Collaborative Overview of coronaVIrus impact on ORTHopaedic training in the UK (COVI - ORTH UK)

Abstract

Introduction COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization on the 11th of March 2020 with the NHS deferring all non-urgent activity from the 15th of April 2020. The aim of our study was to assess the impact of COVID-19 on Trauma and Orthopaedic trainees nationally. Methods Trauma and Orthopaedic (T&O) specialty trainees nationally were asked to complete an electronic survey specifically on the impact of COVID-19 on their training. This UK based survey was conducted between May 2020 and July 2020. Results A total of 185 out of 975 (19%) T&O specialty trainees completed the survey. Redeployment was experienced by 25% of trainees. 84% of respondents had experienced a fall in total operating numbers in comparison with the same time period in 2019. 89% experienced a fall in elective operating and 63% experienced a fall in trauma operating. The pandemic has also had an effect on the delivery of teaching, with face to face teaching being replaced by webinar-based teaching. 63% of training programmes delivered regular weekly teaching, whilst 19% provided infrequent sessions and 11% provided no teaching. Conclusion This study has objectively demonstrated the significant impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on all aspects of T&O training.

The Impact of COVID-19 on Postgraduate Training of Doctors in the United Kingdom: A Narrative Review

“…Of the studies included in the review, 17 discussed the results of surveys completed by trainees and distributed by a number of different organizations [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18]. Two of the surveys [2,3] were completed by foundation doctors, a doctor who will be in their first two years of working following graduation, within a single region in the UK.…”

“…Two of the surveys [2,3] were completed by foundation doctors, a doctor who will be in their first two years of working following graduation, within a single region in the UK. The remaining 15 studies [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18] were national surveys of trainees within a single specialty, facilitated by the training bodies responsible for the training within each of those specialties. These studies produced quantitative data from the answers to the survey questions and qualitative data as they included an option for free text responses, allowing trainees to express specific concerns or impacts that they felt.…”

“…The impact of organized formal teaching being changed to a virtual platform was investigated by one study [24]. Surgery was the specialty that had the greatest number of studies ( 14) on the topic [4,5,[8][9][10][11][14][15][16][17][18][19]21,23]. Four were not associated with any particular specialty [2,3,22,24].…”

“…NHS hospitals in England were told to stop all non-urgent elective surgery for three months [28] with guidance from the Federation of Surgical Specialties [29]. The number of studies included in this review highlighted the reduction in trainees gaining operating experience during this time across a broad range of surgical specialties [8,9,11,[14][15][16]. There was a consensus from trainees that the lack of operator experience would require an extension to training time in order to achieve the required competencies [4,12], which was the case for one in eight surgical trainees according to one study [10].…”

Orthopaedic training during COVID-19 pandemic: should action be taken?

“…For those who remained in orthopaedic services, the workload was reduced, or trainees worked in alternate teams with a specific period on-duty followed by a certain period in isolation or off-duty [ 3 , 4 ]. The operating time spent by trainees for trauma and elective surgeries and the clinic was significantly reduced [ 5 , 6 ]. In the UK, the authorities urged the consultants to be the first surgeons in surgeries that otherwise a trainee can do to decrease the operative time [ 7 ].…”