Medicine and surgery residents’ perspectives on the impact of COVID-19 on graduate medical education

ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 crisis has had an unprecedented impact on resident education and well-being: social distancing guidelines have limited patient volumes and forced virtual learning, while personal protective equipment (PPE) shortages, school/daycare closures, and visa restrictions have served as additional stressors. Our study aimed to analyze the effects of COVID-19 crisis-related stressors on residents’ professional and personal lives. In April 2020, we administered a survey to residents at a large academic hospital system in order to assess the impact of the pandemic on residency training after >6 weeks of a modified schedule. The primary outcome was to determine which factors or resident characteristics were related to stress during the pandemic. Our secondary goals were to examine which resident characteristics were related to survey responses. Data were analyzed with regression analyses. Ninety-six of 205 residents completed the survey (47% response rate). For our primary outcome, anxiety about PPE (P < 0.001), female gender (P = 0.03), and the interaction between female gender and anxiety about PPE (P = 0.04) were significantly related to increased stress during the COVID-19 pandemic. Secondary analyses suggested that medicine residents were more comfortable than surgical residents using telemedicine (P > 0.001). Additionally, compared to juniors, seniors believed that the pandemic was more disruptive, modified schedules were effective, and virtual meetings were less effective while virtual lectures were more effective (all P ≤ 0.05) Furthermore, the pandemic experience has allowed seniors in particular to feel more confident to lead in future health crises (P ≤ 0.05). Medicine and surgery residency programs should be cognizant of and closely monitor the effects of COVID-19 crisis-related factors on residents’ stress and anxiety levels. Transparent communication, telemedicine, online lectures/meetings, procedure simulations, advocacy groups, and wellness resources may help to mitigate some of the challenges posed by the pandemic.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19
• pandemic
• resident education
• virtual learning
• telemedicine
• quarantine

Authorship

1. Tanvi Rana, BS

   1. MS3 at Sidney Kimmel Medical College in Philadelphia, PA

   2. Contributions: developed research question; performed literature search; developed initial survey; wrote introduction, discussion, conclusion, and 25% of results sections of manuscript; wrote background, objectives, and conclusion sections of abstract; created demographics and response rate tables; managed references; managed online supplement

2. Christopher Hackett, MA

   1. Telemedicine Project Manager at the Neuroscience Institute of Allegheny Health Network in Pittsburgh, PA

   2. Contributions: performed literature search; calculated all statistics and interpreted the results; wrote methods and 75% of results sections of manuscript; wrote methods and results sections of abstract; created statistic results tables; edited manuscript

3. Timothy Quezada, DO, MPH

   1. Neurology Chief Resident at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh, PA

   2. Contributions: performed literature search; finalized survey; recruited residency programs to participate in study; edited manuscript

4. Abhishek Chaturvedi, MD

   1. Internal Medicine PGY-3 at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh, PA

   2. Contributions: performed literature search; advised about statistics and online supplement; edited manuscript

5. Veli Bakalov, MD

   1. Internal Medicine PGY-3 at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh, PA

   2. Contributions: performed literature search; finalized survey; edited manuscript

6. Jody Leonardo, MD

   1. Neurosurgery Residency Program Director at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh, PA

   2. Contributions: performed literature search; developed initial survey; edited manuscript

7. Sandeep Rana, MD, FAAN

   1. Neurology Residency Program Director at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh, PA

   2. Contributions: developed research question; obtained IRB approval; performed literature search; finalized survey; recruited residency programs to participate in study; edited manuscript

Disclosures of interest

None

Supplemental Material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.