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

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.