Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Post-Graduate Medical Education and Training in India: Lessons Learned and Opportunities Offered

Abstract

Hands-on or practice-based learning is the foundational objective of postgraduate teaching and training. A skilled and competent postgraduate resident is critical to the country's health needs and is more relevant in the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The postgraduate medical training in India is speciality-specific and based on a structured curriculum and syllabus to achieve precise educational goals and objectives. The impact of this pandemic on postgraduate medical education and training is controversial, challenging, unknown, and far-reaching. The exceptional contagious nature of the virus and country-wide lockdowns have tremendously decreased hospital visiting patients. Abolition of outpatient and inpatient services, disruptions in clinical postings, curtailment of elective operations and procedures have adversely affected the training of residents and fellowship students in India and abroad. Apart from this, research work, mentoring, academic conferences, and workshops that offer learning experiences to these residents have been cancelled or suspended, thus denying them a chance to achieve domain knowledge and enhance their skills. Although this pandemic has offered new learning modes like teleconsultation, videoconferencing, virtual simulations, digital podcasts, etc., how much actual knowledge transfer and skill gain will be achieved is unanswered. Despite this disruption, this pandemic has offered a golden opportunity to relook at the current PG resident education and training programme. The lessons learned from this adversity offer medical universities, medical educators, and regulatory authorities many opportunities to develop a novel and innovative curriculum that enables the current and future residents to achieve the necessary proficiency and competency.

Strengthening medical education during the post-COVID-19 era for building an effective healthcare workforce: A narrative review

“…It is a suitable time for overwhelming blockades to "elearning/teaching" as an integral teaching technique in medical and health colleges [26]. Furthermore, medical schools might utilize this situation and frame a pulsating and comprehensive training structure to aid the students in attaining abilities and expertise in clinical skills during the pandemic [27]. In addition, recent studies stated that there is a need to organize the training programs for faculty members and students of medical schools in utilizing digital platforms during the pandemics [28,29].…”

Online family medicine training amid the COVID-19 crisis in KSA: A mixed-method study

“…This called for changing teaching and learning practices, as well as preventing the spread of the virus among teachers and students. 2 , 3 …”

“…Online teaching, although not new, has become a new norm amid the COVID-19 pandemic. 3 Online methods have been used sporadically in undergraduate and postgraduate medical education in the past. However, COVID-19 has made it the main medium of education.…”

“…Postgraduate medical education requires in-class and bedside teaching, which has to be continued as the training period is specified. 3 In order to continue training family medicine residents during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Family Medicine Academy (FMA) in Qassim adopted online training to facilitate interaction between trainers and residents enrolled at the FMA through videoconferencing and online lectures. Through remote learning, the FMA aims to overcome social distancing and maintain the continuity of educational activities.…”

In pursuit of excellence in anaesthesia education….vision, challenges and opportunities

“…However, the pandemic opened up new learning modes like teleconsultation, video conferencing, virtual simulations, digital podcasts etc. [ 8 ] E-learning is one teaching-learning method that has acquired popularity after COVID times. Digital learning supports student-centered learning, which is the crux of the new CBME curriculum.…”