A Doctor's Training in COVID Era

*Jiwesh Kumar, Priyanka Choudhary, Kishor Kunal, Anita Singh, Ravi Prakash and Prabha Pandey*

### **Abstract**

Doctors have severely been impacted by COVID19 not only by overburden but also by a shift in training programmes. With objective to identify the impact of COVID19 on the present training programme of doctors and delineate the possible future impact and find ways to reduce it, a literature review was carried on. Various impacts and adaptations were found. These could be different for different individuals, specialities, and regions based on available resources and the direct impact of COVID19. Although long-term effects are yet to be seen, it has raised several brows, especially questioning the traditional way of training and competency of individuals trained in specialities. We recommend a hybrid model—a mixture of virtual and real training and assessment—for medical education even in the post-COVID era to reap the benefits of both.

**Keywords:** trainee, resident, impact, medical education, psychological, COVID19

## **1. Introduction**

When it comes to saving lives, looking throughout the pandemic, this is dignified sacrifice that each doctor made to look after the ill with uncertainty of disease course, limited supplies of protection gear, working overtime and holding not just onto the duties as a doctor but also a member of family and responsibilities towards non-medico friends and acquaintances. But, rather than seeing all doctors from a single profession, we shall see them as cluster of different specializations in progress. Doctors have severely been impacted by COVID19 not only by overburden but also by a shift in training programmes [1–3].

The aspect of training and duties in COVID19 has been rightly dealt by Cate et al. but at the same time, it is also important to see how trainees perceive the impact of pandemic on their training [4]. Johnson and Blitzer noted how the shift in duties is observed by residents as decrement in competency development. Similar reports were made by Upadhyay et al. [5, 6]*.* In addition to this, the training also got affected by redeployment, overburdening and secondary traumatic stress disorders [2, 3, 7]. Identifying the root cause and mapping the response can help deal with psychological impact on trainees [8]. Let us look at the impact on training and different adaptive modalities used for the continuation of medical education.
