The impact of COVID-19 related lockdown on ophthalmology training programs in India – Outcomes of a survey

Abstract

Purpose: In 2020, in response to the emergence and global spread of the disease COVID-19, caused by a new variant of coronavirus 2019-nCoV, the government of India ordered a nationwide lockdown for 21 days, which was then extended to a total of over 50 days. The aim of this study is to assess the effect of the lockdown on ophthalmic training programs across India. Methods: An online survey was sent across to trainee ophthalmologists across India through various social media platforms. Results: In all, 716 trainees responded; the average age was 29.1 years. Results showed that majority of the respondents were enrolled in residency programs (95.6%; 685/716) and the others were in fellowship programs. About 24.6% (176/716) of the trainees had been deployed on 'COVID-19 screening' duties. Nearly 80.7% (578/716) of the trainees felt that the COVID-19 lockdown had negatively impacted their surgical training. Furthermore, 54.8% (392/716) of the trainees perceived an increase in stress levels during the COVID-19 lockdown and 77.4% (554/716) reported that their family members had expressed an increased concern for their safety and wellbeing since the lockdown began. In all, 75.7% (542/716) of the respondents felt that online classes and webinars were useful during the lockdown period. Conclusion: Our survey showed that majority ophthalmology trainees across the country felt that the COVID-19 lockdown adversely affected their learning, especially surgical training. While most found online classes and webinars useful, the trainees' perceived stress levels were higher than normal during the lockdown. Training hospitals should take cognizance of this and reassure trainees; formulate guidelines to augment training to compensate for the lost time as well as mitigate the stress levels upon resumption of regular hospital services and training. Going ahead, permanent changes such as virtual classrooms and simulation-based training should be considered.

Knowledge of COVID-19 and Its Influence on Mindfulness, Cognitive Emotion Regulation and Psychological Flexibility in the Indian Community

“…Researchers in India have reported an increase in anxiety and depression among Indians, owing to the pandemic (Goyal et al, 2020;Kumar and Nayar, 2020;Mishra et al, 2020;Rehman et al, 2020;Verma and Mishra, 2020). The current study shows that with the increase in anxiety symptoms like irrational fear, excessive worry, uncertainty regarding future, accompanying physiological reactions like palpitations, nausea, breathing difficulties, and repeated, ritualistic behavior comes an increase in depressive symptoms like apathy, low mood, concentration difficulties, agitation, anger, sleep and appetite disturbances, restlessness, fatigue, irritability, social withdrawal, ideas of helplessness, hopelessness, self-harm, and suicidal tendencies.…”

Impact of COVID-19 pandemic, national lockdown, and unlocking on an apex tertiary care ophthalmic institute

“…Minimal patient exposure has jeopardized resident learning and steps such as rotational clinical postings, online classes, simulator-based surgical practice, and extension of tenure have been undertaken to facilitate their learning. [ 17 ] Financial repercussions of national economic backlash may be expected as suboptimal government expenditure on newer blindness-eradication policies. This superadded by hampered monetary collections in our government-funded institute secondary to declined patient inflow may further worsen delivery of long-term high-quality ophthalmic care to all economic sections of the society, more so to the poor and the deprived.…”

A quick glance at publications on COVID-19 and ophthalmology

“…[ 6 7 ] Ophthalmology trainees' surgical training has significantly suffered; however, there were several academic activities, including conferences and workshops facilitated by electronic media. [ 8 ]…”