Affiliation:
1. Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
2. Division of Family Medicine, Montfort Hospital, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Abstract
OBJECTIVES The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic is a destabilizing experience for medical students and resident doctors and troubles their training in the hospital setting. This narrative review aims to identify the effect of health crises on the academic and personal lives of medical trainees and to develop solutions to support them. METHODS EducationSource, MedLine and PsychInfo were consulted on June 30th and December 16th, 2020 to identify the articles explaining the effect of SARS-CoV-1 (2002), A/H1N1 (2009) or SARS-CoV-2 (ongoing) on medical learners. Exclusion criteria included policy papers, letters to the editor or articles detailing the impact on undergraduate medical curricula, on nonmedical trainees, on the residency application process, or the physical impact of the disease. The quality of the selected papers was appraised using CASP for qualitative studies and NHLBI-NIH for cross-sectional studies. RESULTS Ninety-four manuscripts were initially generated and 229, secondarily, of which respectively 14 and 16 were included in the final analysis according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines and reviewed qualitatively. It was found that the learners consider their education compromised by exam delays, the suspension of academic activities, and elective surgeries. Anxiety associated with this academic disruption developed. Burnout is exacerbated by the heightened workload. The main difference between the two searches was the long-term effect of COVID-19, including the opportunity for didactic innovation, the worry regarding professional identity formation and the development of mental health issues. The proposed solutions varied from continuous access to mental health resources to the follow-up of learners’ well-being. CONCLUSION It would be interesting to assess the impact of medical trainees’ specialty and country’s development on their experience with COVID-19.