Analysis of educational concerns in standardized training for clinical residents during public health emergencies

Purpose Clinical residents face significant challenges as frontline providers during public health emergencies. We analyzed their educational needs to improve their physiopsychological well-being and problem-solving capacities. Methods This study focused on residents during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak. We defined the epidemic’s early stage as the first three years of strict protective measures and the late stage as the mask-only protection period. We collected 213 valid responses through online questionnaire surveys, which provided data on basic information for analysis. Results Psychological pressure, which could be self-relieved, increased during the epidemic’s late stage (46.9% vs. 67.1%, p = 0.000), but an increase in depressive tendencies was not observed. Females were more likely to work longer hours, spend less time doing research, have a higher fear of going out, and were less likely to return to offline learning. They were also less likely to be depressed. However, males exhibited shorter working hours, greater devotion to scientific research, less fear of going out, and a stronger desire to resume offline learning, but they showed greater depression levels. After adjusting for the effects of other parameters, being male, having longer working hours, and lacking time for scientific research were significant predictors of a depressive trend. However, graduate or postdoctoral students were less likely to be depressive. Conclusions Graduate or postdoctoral students are less prone to depression during the epidemic, possibly due to tutor presence during public health emergencies.