| Rosen19 | Urology | Residency programmes directors | 65/144 (45%) | Patient contact time decreased from 4.7 to 2.1 days per week (p<0.001). Redeployment was reported in 26% of programmes. 60% of programmes had concern that residents will not meet case minimums due to COVID-19. 77% reported remote clinical work and 52% televisits. All programmes had begun to use videoconferencing and 60% planned to continue. In states with a higher incidence of COVID-19: Resident redeployment and exposure to COVID-19 positive patients were more frequent (48% vs 11%, p=0.002) and (70% vs 40%, p=0.03), Concerns regarding exposure (78% vs 97%, p=0.02) and personal protective equipment availability (62% vs 89%, p=0.02) were less frequent.
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| Garcia27 | Neurosurgery | Medical students. | 315/875 (36%) | 2/3 reported indefinite postponement of clinical clerkship and most have suspended in-person didactics. Many reported using unstructured time to improve neurosurgical knowledge, with increasing frequency by increasing medical school years. More than half report that the pandemic has had a significant negative impact on academic productivity. 1/3 MS1 reported dissatisfaction with neurosurgical career planning. 1/5 MS1 are less likely to pursue a career in neurosurgery. The majority of MS2 and MS3 are delaying their US Medical Licensing Examination steps I and II. 3/4 MS3 reported indefinite postponement of subinternships, and most are unsatisfied with communication from external programmes as it relates to subinternships. 1/3 MS4 are graduating early to participate in COVID-19-related patient care. A vast majority are requesting logistical help to prepare for residency remotely: student-focused webinars, student-focused sessions at upcoming neurosurgical conferences, and finding ways to accommodate for expected changes in external subinternships are solutions frequently reported.
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| Guadixl32 | Neurosurgery | Medical students | 133/852 (16%, then
six excluded responses) | Most affected aspects of their neurosurgery residency application: conferences and networking opportunities (63%), clinical experience (59%), board examination scores (42%), subinternships (39%), clinical research experience (38%). 76% MS3 reported >1 cancelled or postponed neurosurgery rotation. Concerns regarding how COVID-19 would affect surgical skills acquisition increased significantly the higher the MS year. Students were more likely to take 1 year off from medical school after than before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, measured from 0 to 100 (25.3 vs 39.5; p=0.004). Virtual mentorship pairing was the highest rated educational intervention suggested by MS1 and MS2. Virtual surgical skills workshops were the highest rated educational intervention for MS3 and MS4.
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| Alhaj34 | Neurosurgery | Residents | 52/53 (98%) | 48% dealt directly with patients with COVID-19. 57.7% had a session about personal protective equipment. 98% perceived an impact on neurosurgery training at the hospital. 80% felt daily studying hours were affected. 90% believed that this pandemic had influenced their mental health.
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| Rose40 | Emergency medicine | Residents | NA
(targeted audience n=1080) | Most residents were unfamiliar with Slack messaging platform and may have felt reserved about navigating the platform during discussion. 84% of residents felt that ALiEM Connect had the same or better quality than in-person conference experiences. 93% enjoyed the event overall.
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| Mishra52 | Ophthalmology | Resident (95.6%) and Fellows (4.4%) | 716/NA
(716 valid responses) | 24.6% had been deployed on COVID-19 duty. 80.7% felt that the COVID-19 lockdown had negatively impacted their surgical training (50% or more reduction in their surgical training). 47.2% noticed a negative impact on their theoretical/classroom learning. 54.8% perceived an increase in stress levels during the COVID-19 lockdown. 77.4% reported that their family members had expressed an increased concern for their safety and well-being since the lockdown began. 75.7% felt that online classes and webinars were useful during the lockdown period.
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| Zingaretti51 | Aesthetic surgery | Resident | 115/146 (72%) | 60% reported 50%–75% elective surgery activity decrease, affecting a lot their training and professional growth for 68%. 66% reported an increase of learning activities compared with pre-COVID-19. <5% use virtual didactic courses during COVID-19 pandemic. 60% find that didactic tools during COVID-19 19 are useful but not sufficient.
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| Pertile64 | Surgery (Polyspecialistic) | Residents | 756/NA (756 included questionnaires) | 61.3% experienced a reduction and 34.6% a complete interruption of surgical activities. 14.8% surgery residents were redeployed to COVID-19 non-surgical units General surgery residents were more frequently redeployed (p<0.01) than other surgical specialty residents. Northern Italian regions surgery residents were more commonly relocated to non-surgical wards than those belonging to central and southern Italian regions (p<0.01). General surgery residents did not change their professional ambitions in comparison to other specialties residents (10% vs 17.2%; p=0.02). Redeployed surgery residents reported that the pandemic had a positive impact on their clinical training in 49.1% and a negative impact on surgical training in 87.5%.
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