Reshaping ophthalmology training after COVID-19 pandemic

Ferrara, Mariantonia, Romano, Vito ORCID: 0000-0002-5148-7643, Steel, David H, Gupta, Rajen, Iovino, Claudio, van Dijk, Elon HC and Romano, Mario R (2020) Reshaping ophthalmology training after COVID-19 pandemic. EYE, 34 (11). pp. 2089-2097.

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Abstract

<h4>Background</h4>The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had a significant impact on practical activities and didactic teaching of residents and fellows. This survey aimed to propose long-term changes for ophthalmology training based on the changes experienced by trainees and their perception of new training opportunities.<h4>Methods</h4>An online survey was distributed to ophthalmology trainees in multiple countries. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the data.<h4>Results</h4>A total of 504 analyzable responses were collected from 32 different countries. The current impact of COVID-19 pandemic was described as "severe" by most trainees (55.2%); however, the future perspective was more optimistic as demonstrated by the greater number of responses reporting a presumed "moderate" (37.3%), "mild" (14.1%) or "slight" (4.2%) long-term impact. The vast majority of trainees reported a decrease ≥50% of clinical activity (76.4%) and >75% of surgical activity (74.6%). Although an initial gap in didactic teaching has been experienced by many (55.4%), regular web-based teaching was reportedly attended by 67.7% of the respondents. A strong agreement was found regarding the worthwhile role of web-based case-presentations in clinical training (91.7%), web-based discussion of edited surgical videos (85.7%) and simulation-based practice (86.9%) in surgical training.<h4>Conclusions</h4>This survey, focusing on trainees' perspective, strongly reinforces the need to promptly include new technology-based training tools, such as web-based teaching, virtual surgical simulators, and telementoring, in long-term reorganisation of ophthalmology training to ensure its continuity and effectiveness, which would remain available even in the face of another unpredictable crisis within the health system.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	OphthaTraining Group, Humans, Pneumonia, Viral, Coronavirus Infections, Eye Diseases, Ophthalmology, Comorbidity, Curriculum, Education, Medical, Graduate, Internship and Residency, Pandemics, Surveys and Questionnaires, Betacoronavirus, COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	16 Nov 2020 08:27
Last Modified:	18 Jan 2023 23:22
DOI:	10.1038/s41433-020-1061-3
Related URLs:	Author Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3106718