Surgical Care and Resident Education during COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

COVID-19 pandemic is nearly affecting all surgical activities including providing a surgical care to the patients as well as a negative impact on the educational program of the resident doctors in nearly all surgical specialties. During this period, surgeons set out to find an effective solution to deal with patients who visit outpatient surgical clinics or emergency units especially those who are infected or in contact with an infected individual. Moreover, the continuity of the educational program to the residents, doctors and completion of the syllabus is an essential issue needs to be done in a complete organized manner. The aims are to provide the best solution for them (surgical patients and resident doctors) as well as reducing the risk of the infection to other patients, residents, and healthcare staff. Telemedicine can act as a substitute to many in-person consultation, therefore, it aids in controlling the infection. Many studies and recommendations are tackling this vital issue among surgeons from different specialties across the globe. Despite minor variations among these, these studies serve the above-mentioned purposes. We highlight in this narrative review to give the surgeons an appropriate plan for dealing with suspected or infected COVID-19 surgical cases and to complete the surgical educational program of the resident doctors.