Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Surgical Training and Learner Well-Being: Report of a Survey of General Surgery and Other Surgical Specialty Educators

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the delivery of surgical services. The purpose of this communication was to report the impact of the pandemic on surgical training and learner well-being and to document adaptations made by surgery departments. STUDY DESIGN: A 37-item survey was distributed to educational leaders in general surgery and other surgical specialty training programs. It included both closed-and open-ended questions and the self-reported stages of GME during the COVID-19 pandemic, as defined by the ACGME. Statistical associations for items with stage were assessed using categorical analysis. RESULTS: The response rate was 21% (472 of 2,196). US stage distribution (n ¼ 447) was as follows: stage 1, 22%; stage 2, 48%; and stage 3, 30%. Impact on clinical education significantly increased by stage, with severe reductions in nonemergency operations (73% and 86% vs 98%) and emergency operations (8% and 16% vs 34%). Variable effects were reported on minimal expected case numbers across all stages. Reductions were reported in outpatient experience (83%), in-hospital experience (70%), and outside rotations (57%). Increases in ICU rotations were reported with advancing stage (7% and 13% vs 37%). Severity of impact on didactic education increased with stage (14% and 30% vs 46%). Virtual conferences were adopted by 97% across all stages. Severity of impact on learner well-being increased by stagedphysical safety (6% and 9% vs 31%), physical health (0% and 7% vs 17%), and emotional health (11% and 24% vs 42%). Regardless of stage, most but not all made adaptations to support trainees' well-being. CONCLUSIONS: The pandemic adversely impacted surgical training and the well-being of learners across all surgical specialties proportional to increasing ACGME stage. There is a need to develop education disaster plans to support technical competency and learner well-being. Careful Disclosure Information: Nothing to disclose. Disclosure outside the scope of this work: Dr Ellison receives royalty payments for original contributions from McGraw-Hill Medical and Wolters Kluwer. All other authors have nothing to disclose.

COVID-19 Impact on Surgical Resident Education and Coping

“…They were also concerned about having sufficient skills if deployed in the event of a surge, with free response sentiments mentioning lack of knowledge and experience when treating critically ill patients. Equipping surgical trainees with emergency preparedness training may be advisable as the pandemic continues 27 . We incorporated the feedback from this study and developed a longitudinal curriculum regarding the critical care management of COVID-19 patients and presented it to residents as a three-part series during their weekly educational half days 28 .…”

COVID-19 Pandemic and the Need for Disaster Planning in Surgical Education

“…An important finding of the surgical educator survey was the variability of including education planning in an institutional disaster plan. 2 In this study, nearly 80% of respondents across all surgical specialties thought that institutional disaster plans should have provisions for education programs. Who should be involved in making these plans?…”

“…In addition, the results are validated by being nearly identical to the findings of a survey of surgical educators by A Special Committee of the Academy of Master Surgical Educators of the American College of Surgeons. 2 We believe that the findings of these complementary studies will help us better characterize the impact of this pandemic on surgical education and trainee well-being and motivate us to proactively develop steps to both preserve surgical trainee development of ACGME competencies and protect their emotional health and physical safety should there be a similar crisis in the future.…”

Transferring face-to-face sessions to virtual sessions in surgical education: a survey-based assessment of a single academic general surgery program

“…It is well known that the greatest burden for resident training is the decreased time spent in the operating room, refining, and practicing surgical techniques [ 2 , 3 ]. Nevertheless, this paper focuses on the resident’s perception about clinical academic sessions transferred into a virtual method, and not on how it affected their day-to-day clinical surgical practice.…”