The role of emergency medicine residents during the global SARS-Cov-2 pandemic: The Pavia experience

Abstract

In late January 2020, the first cases of Covid-19 were diagnosed in Italy. A month later the epidemic broke out in Lombardy bringing along dire consequences. Up to January 23rd 2021, the region counted 522,000 cases, and 26.518 deaths on a population of nearly 10 million. For many weeks thereafter tens of emergency COVID-19 patients were admitted every day through the ED requiring further adjustments in the organization of the Hospital, always in close cooperation with the out-of-hospital Emergency network. Among these, important and time-sensitive changes took place in the role of Residents in Emergency Medicine. As residents who worked through the first and second wave of the Sars-CoV-2 pandemic in the Emergency Department, we would like to discuss the consequences of our massive involvement on the front line of the healthcare effort to fight it.