Along with the socio-economic burden the COVID-19 pandemic carried, the strain it brought upon our health care system is unparalleled. In an attempt to conserve much needed personal protective equipment (PPE) as well as to free up available hospital beds to accommodate the significant influx of COVID-19 patients, many elective surgical cases were essentially put on hold. Furthermore, to taper the spread of this highly contagious virus and to protect the medical staff, surgical clinics were limited to urgent care that could not be managed through virtual platforms. Surgical trainees, such as residents and fellows, who solemnly rely on clinical and surgical exposure to hone their operative and clinical skills, were evidently left deprived. As the pandemic rapidly progressed, medical staff in the emergency departments and what is now known as the COVID wards and COVID ICUs quickly became overwhelmed and overworked. This new reality required surgical trainees to rapidly redeploy to help meet the rising hospital needs. With no clear end to this pandemic, surgical trainees worry they will not reach the appropriate milestones and acquire the amount of surgical experience required to become competent surgeons. As a result, a rapid solution should be found and applied to remedy this newly created gap in surgical education. The measures we recommend include access to regular webinars from world-renowned experts, increased implementation of surgical simulation, selective redeployment of residents to favor level-appropriate learning opportunities and lastly, the active participation of trainees in telemedicine with an increase in surgical exposure as soon as the restrictions are lifted.

中文翻译：

---

受 COVID-19 大流行影响的外科培训计划中维持教育能力的教育替代方案


除了 COVID-19 大流行带来的社会经济负担之外，它还给我们的医疗保健系统带来了前所未有的压力。为了节省急需的个人防护装备 (PPE) 并腾出可用的医院床位来容纳大量涌入的 COVID-19 患者，许多择期手术病例基本上被搁置。此外，为了减少这种高度传染性病毒的传播并保护医务人员，外科诊所仅限于无法通过虚拟平台管理的紧急护理。外科实习生，例如住院医生和研究员，他们庄严地依靠临床和外科手术来磨练他们的手术和临床技能，但显然被剥夺了权利。随着疫情迅速蔓延，急诊科以及现在的新冠病房和新冠重症监护室的医务人员很快就不堪重负，过度劳累。这一新的现实要求外科实习生迅速重新部署，以帮助满足医院不断增长的需求。由于这种流行病没有明确结束，外科实习生担心他们将无法达到适当的里程碑并获得成为合格的外科医生所需的大量外科经验。因此，应该找到并应用一种快速解决方案来弥补外科教育中新产生的差距。我们建议的措施包括定期参加世界知名专家的网络研讨会、增加手术模拟的实施、有选择地重新部署住院医师以提供适合水平的学习机会，最后，学员积极参与远程医疗，尽快增加手术暴露随着限制的解除。