• medical education & training
• education & training (see medical education & training)

The current COVID-19 pandemic has led to unprecedented disruptions to medical training. In this article, we will share two UK trainees’ perspectives on this.

Widespread interruptions to medical education are seen throughout history. At times of major conflicts, the quality of training suffers as a result.1 2 For example, during the blitz, students and newly qualified interns were distributed to areas of need.2 Also during World War II, certain American medical schools shortened their postgraduate degree programme from 4 years to 3 years to address doctor shortages.3 The UK government has adopted this to a degree, where final-year students were encouraged to start their Foundation Programme early.4

Despite the disruptions, there are always silver linings. After the two world wars, there have been radical reforms in the medical education system, leading to improvement of the curricula and intake,5 including an increase in women admissions to medical schools.6

The current pandemic is comparable to the other historical events, with major challenges to the National Health Service. Also, due to the drastic reduction in elective surgery and routine work, traditional learning opportunities have become scarcer. Many outpatient clinics have switched toward teleclinics and tele-triaging. Trainers have increasing demands on their time as they adapt to different ways of working. Even within a department, social distancing …