Background: Due to high-risk exposure of surgical residents to coronavirus, surgical residency programs have changed their training methods and working hours drastically. The purpose of this study is to find out the positive and negative impacts of the pandemic on surgical residency programs and on the lives of surgical residents. Materials and methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 112 surgical residents of a tertiary care hospital in Pakistan, with a mean age of 30.5 years from all the departments of surgery using a self-made, validated 40point questionnaire comprising three sections. The last section also included modified Maslach Burnout inventory.Results: Of all the residents, 97 (86.6%) stated that their surgical hands-on duration is adversely affected by the pandemic. As for clinical exposure, 92 (82.1%) trainees responded that their clinical exposure is affected too. Among all the subjects, 69 (61%) were concerned about transmitting it to their family members and 43 (38.4%) affirmed on being afraid of dying because of their direct exposure.On the brighter side, the average number of working hours per week for surgical residents were reduced from 81.10 ± 6.21 to 49.16 ± 6.25 (p < 0.001) due to the outbreak. Modified Maslach Burnout inventory score was 8.33 ± 2.34 after the outbreak, showing statistically significant reduction in burnout among the surgical residents (p < 0.001). Conclusion:The changes in the surgical residency programs amidst the pandemic has reduced the working hours, hands-on and clinical exposure of the surgical residents. Moreover, the situation has provided an opportunity to explore efficient methods of learning that can lead to lesser burnout. However, psychological burdens of surgical residents like fear of acquiring the infection should be appropriately addressed.

IntroductionMedical students choose to pursue their careers based on multiple internal and external factors. These factors, in turn, not only affect their personal future but the overall status of the health care system of their country. A recent decline in the interest of medical students towards the surgical career is being observed and, therefore, the factors influencing their choice need to be evaluated. We aimed to identify these factors in medical students of a public sector university of Karachi.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted at Dow Medical College from April 2018 to May 2018. A pre-tested questionnaire was administered to a sample of 250 students. Besides sociodemographic factors, the choice of career was identified and the factors that influenced it were assessed. Students' opinions were collected using a Likert scale. Data were entered and analyzed using the IBM Statistical Package for the Social Sciences 23.0 (IBM, NY, USA). Frequencies were calculated for individual variables. The chi-square test was used to measure statistical differences between categorical variables and a p-value of <0.05 was considered to be significant.ResultsIn this study, 224 out of 250 questionnaires were returned with complete data, yielding a response rate of 89.6%. We found that 48.2% of students reported a desire to pursue a career in surgery. Students whose fathers were more qualified and belonged to the field of health care were more likely to pick a surgical career (p-value of 0.034 and 0.039, respectively). Students who were willing to pursue a path in surgery more often thought that the social standing of surgeons had its importance (p=0.037). These students also agreed that high salary has a role to play in affecting the choice of career (p=0.023). The most common factors that encouraged students for the choice of a surgical career included the practical implication of skills (57.4%) followed by an academic interest in the field (53.7%), and high income (42.6%). The most common discouraging factors included lifestyle and long working hours (56.9%), followed by less academic interest (31%).ConclusionOur study provides a valuable insight into the factors that influence the choice of medical students for pursuing a career in surgery. We also identified the factors that demotivated them from doing so. In our opinion, better incorporation of surgery into the curriculum, proper attention given to students during their surgical rotation and restructuring of the surgical training program are some of the ways that may improve the interest of students in the field of surgery.

BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic brought about a major shift in the educational training of surgical trainees. As the Lockdown was implemented and the daily workforce reduced, an alternate method was employed to provide uninterrupted learning. Blended learning that includes virtual learning with face-to-face learning/teaching was utilized for the surgical trainees. MOODLE (Modular object-oriented dynamic learning environment), an open-source learning management system, was integrated as an Online Component of our Blended Learning Program. We aimed to evaluate the perception of postgraduate trainees of General Surgery regarding the benefits and limitations of Blended Learning, particularly its online component, i.e., Moodle LMS, for the betterment of surgical -education during the COVID-19 pandemic. Material and MethodsThirty-three postgraduate general surgery trainees were enrolled in a blended learning program, in which its online component, Moodle LMS, comprised four major topics on General Surgery. A questionnaire was provided to the trainees to obtain feedback on blended learning in general, and Moodle LMS was mainly themed on the Likert scale. ResultsThe approach of blended learning was positively received by the participants, the majority of whom were females (75%) and comprising of Year 1 residents (33.3%). Nearly half of the participants found Moodle LMS user-friendly, practical and a good platform for learning. However, nearly two thirds (60.6%) were uncertain if it ever helped in applying knowledge to interpret laboratory and radiological results for patient management. Even then, most of them found that the face-to-face component of blended learning helped them develop specific clinical and surgical skills (42.4%). Emphatically, 78.7% would recommend it for surgical training. ConclusionBlended learning was found to be beneficial in the training process of surgical postgraduates in the current COVID-19 pandemic situation. We recommend it for the training of doctors for optimized learning.

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