Impacts on Surgery Resident Education at a first wave COVID-19 Epicenter

  1. Alexander Ostapenko
  2. Samantha McPeck
  3. Shawn Liechty
  4. Daniel Kleiner

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Abstract

Background: This study aims to identify the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on surgical resident training and education at Danbury Hospital. Methods: We conducted an observational study at a Western Connecticut hospital heavily affected by the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic to assess its effects on surgical residents, focusing on surgical education, clinical experience, and operative skills development. Objective data was available through recorded work hours, case logs, and formal didactics. In addition, we created an anonymous survey to assess resident perception of their residency experience during the pandemic. Results: There are 22 surgical residents at our institution; all were included in the study. Resident weekly duty hours decreased by 23.9 hours with the majority of clinical time redirected to caring for COVID-19 patients. Independent studying increased by 1.6 hours (26.2%) while weekly didactics decreased by 2.1 hours (35.6%). The operative volume per resident decreased by 65.7% from 35.0 to 12.0 cases for the period of interest, with a disproportionately high effect on junior residents, who experienced a 76.2% decrease. Unsurprisingly, 70% of residents reported a negative effect of the pandemic on their surgical skills. Conclusions: During the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, surgical residents’ usual workflows changed dramatically, as much of their time was dedicated to the critical care of patients with COVID-19. However, the consequent opportunity cost was to surgery-specific training; there was a significant decrease in operative cases and time spent in surgical didactics, along with elevated concern about overall preparedness for their intended career.

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  1. Version published to 10.21203/rs.3.rs-61594/v1 on Research Square
  2. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.08.16.20176073: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board StatementIRB: Our Institutional Review Board deemed this study exempt (IRB# 2012208337) and waived the need for participant consent.
    Consent: Our Institutional Review Board deemed this study exempt (IRB# 2012208337) and waived the need for participant consent.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    No key resources detected.

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:
    The main limitation of this study was that it was limited to a single surgical residency program. Therefore, the results may not be generalizable to residents in other programs in the United States. However, as one of the earliest areas affected by COVID-19, we are able to analyze its effects in a timely fashion that may benefit other geographic areas affected similarly in the future. While residents in states with lower incidence of COVID-19 may not be as significantly impacted as residents at our institution, continued evolution of the COVID pandemic and the rise of new epicenters of disease may make these results more generalizable over time. Despite the limitations, these results are integral in critically thinking about the future of surgical education. The COVID-19 pandemic will continue to affect residency programs across the country with changes to clinical work, didactics, and operative experience of surgical residents. As physicians, our highest mandate is patient care. We have an ethical and moral responsibility to take care of COVID-19 patients, and there is a great deal to be learned from such experiences. Nonetheless, the cultivation of surgical knowledge and physical skills is integral to the development of future surgeons, and the short duration of residency education is an incomparably formative time. It is important to keep in mind that the role COVID-19 as a disease will have in the future of medical care is impossible to divine, and that regardless of the ...

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    About SciScore

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  3. Version published to 10.1101/2020.08.16.20176073v1 on medRxiv
  4. Version published to 10.1177/2382120520975022