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. 2021 Dec 6;21(1):603.
doi: 10.1186/s12909-021-03029-4.

Residency training amid the COVID-19 pandemic: exploring the impact on mental health and training, a lesson from Iran

Ashraf Moini  1   2   3 , Khadije Maajani  4 , Ramesh Omranipour  1   5 , Mohamad-Reza Zafarghandi  6 , Ashraf Aleyasin  7 , Roya Oskoie  8 , Sadaf Alipour  9   10
Affiliations

Residency training amid the COVID-19 pandemic: exploring the impact on mental health and training, a lesson from Iran

Ashraf Moini et al. BMC Med Educ. .

Abstract

Background: COVID-19 has affected the training programs and the clinical schedules of surgical wards in many countries, including Iran. Also, the continuous involvement with COVID-19 patients has caused stress in health care workers; among them, residents are on the frontlines of care delivery. Therefore, we designed a study to assess the mental effects of these circumstances, and the effects on General Surgery and Obstetrics & Gynecology residency training in the busiest surgical departments of our university.

Methods: Participants of this cross-sectional study were residents of General Surgery and Obstetrics & Gynecology of Tehran University of Medical Sciences, and the conventional sampling method was used. We used a questionnaire consisting of 47 questions (mostly using multiple choice questions and answers on the Likert scale) about personal, familial, and demographic characteristics; training activities, and mental effects of COVID-19.

Results: The response rate was 63.5%. (127 filled questionnaires). Around 96% of the residents had emotional problems, 85.9% were highly stressed about contracting COVID-19, 81.3% were worried about transferring it to their families; and 78% believed that their residency training had been impaired.

Conclusion: Overall, our study shows the negative impact of COVID-19 on mental health and the training of residents. We propose that appropriate emotional support and suitable planning for compensation of training deficits is provided for residents.

Keywords: Coronaphobia; General surgery; Gynecology; Mental health; Obstetrics; Residency; Stress; Training.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no conflict of interest to declare.

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Summary of study and findings
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