UK-wide study of the opinions of gastroenterology trainees: COVID-19, Shape of Training and the future workforce

Abstract

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted training. Gastroenterology higher specialty training is soon to be reduced from 5 years to 4. The British Society of Gastroenterology Trainees Section biennial survey aims to delineate the impact of COVID-19 on training and the opinions on changes to training.

Methods: An electronic survey allowing for anonymised responses at the point of completion was distributed to all gastroenterology trainees from September to November 2020.

Results: During the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, 71.0% of the respondents stated that more than 50% of their clinical time was mostly within general internal medicine. Trainees reported a significant impact on all aspects of their gastroenterology training due to lost training opportunities and increasing service commitments. During the first wave, 88.5% of the respondents reported no access to endoscopy training lists. Since this time, 66.2% of the respondents stated that their endoscopy training lists had restarted. This has resulted in fewer respondents achieving endoscopy accreditation. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused 42.2% of the respondents to consider extending their training to obtain the skills required to complete training. Furthermore, 10.0% of the respondents reported concerns of a delay to completion of training. The majority of respondents (84.2%) reported that they would not feel ready to be a consultant after 4 years of training.

Conclusions: Reductions in all aspects of gastroenterology training were reported. This is mirrored in anticipated concerns about completion of training in a shorter training programme as proposed in the new curriculum. Work is now required to ensure training is restored following the pandemic.

Keywords: COVID-19; endoscopic procedures; endoscopy.

Figure 1

Number of training opportunities pre-COVID-19 (prior to March 2020), during the first wave (March–June 2020) and following the first wave (after June 2020).

Figure 2

Percentage of trainees who have achieved Joint Advisory Group (JAG) accreditation in oesophagogastroduodenoscopy (OGD), provisional colonoscopy (PC) and full colonoscopy (FC) divided by specialty training year (ST).