786 Virtual Teaching in the COVID Era: Providing Surgical Trainee Teaching Via Online Webinars and Video Conferencing

Abstract

IntroductionCore surgical training is dependent on a balance of lecture-based and procedure-based teaching. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, from March 2020 teaching provided by the Northern Ireland Medical and Dental Training Agency (NIMDTA) for Core Surgical Trainees (CSTs) was cancelled. In lieu of this, a virtual teaching programme was developed to ensure this vital aspect of training was not neglected.MethodFirstly, one-year free Affiliate membership to the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (RCSEd) was provided for all Northern Ireland CSTs, allowing access to RCSEd online webinars. Second, a weekly teaching schedule was developed with accompanying webinar – this was based on the MRCS curriculum. Third, consultants and senior registrars were recruited to conduct a virtual teaching session via videoconferencing. Feedback was collated and used to guide future topics covered. The teaching sessions were recorded for trainee dissemination with consent from the tutors.ResultsTen teaching sessions were conducted over three months. While attendance was variable, overall feedback was very positive with requests for this virtual teaching to continue. As such, NIMDTA adopted the teaching programme as their new primary method of lecture-based teaching for all Northern Ireland CSTs.ConclusionsAlthough prepared in a short space of time, a novel, highly successful teaching programme was developed in Northern Ireland to meet the training needs of CSTs. This has resulted in a sustained change to training in Northern Ireland and may be imperative in supporting surgical training in a foreseeably socially distanced world.