Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on General Surgery Training in Turkey
Journal Title: Turkish Journal of Colorectal Disease - Year 2021, Vol 31, Issue 1
Abstract
Aim: The Coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic has affected all countries in the world and has created a serious burden on the health systems of countries. Although health systems, which have not encountered such a sudden and intense load for many years, had difficulty in responding to this need at first, measures have been taken to meet this sudden demand in a short time. This change in the health system has led to a decrease in the number of elective surgeries in particular. One of the outcomes of the COVID-19 pandemic is interrupted and insufficient surgery training. In this study, we aimed to assess the effects of COVID-19 on general surgery education in Turkey. Method: In the study, a questionnaire consisting of 22 questions including participants’ demographic information, their education level and the average number of cases in the time interval covering the same period of the previous year was used. In the study, the period between January 2019-April 2019 and January 2020-April 2020 was compared, and the operations performed during this period were compared in terms of emergency, elective, laparoscopic and open surgery. Results: When the number of elective/emergency hernia, upper gastrointestinal-hepatobiliary and colorectal-benign anorectal operations performed primarily by the assistant under the supervision of the responsible lecturer were compared, it was found that the rates were decreased from 9.67 to 0.76, 7.66 to 1.38 and 7.48 to 2.00, respectively, and all these changes were found to be statistically significant. The rate of emergency operations performed primarily by the lecturer decreased from 34.16% to 28.93% (p=0.045), and the rate of elective surgeries performed primarily by the faculty member decreased from 61.09% to 55.93% (p=0.045 and p=0.411). Conclusion: There has been a significant decrease in the number of elective and emergency surgeries due to the change in the health system. We believe that changes should be made by clinics to their training programmes so that this decrease does not affect the training of surgical residents.
Authors and Affiliations
Eyüp Murat Yılmaz, Ulaş Utku Şekerci, Hedef Özgün, Tahsin Çolak
Keywords
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