Surgical Training During and After COVID-19: A Joint Trainee and Trainers Manifesto.

Abstract

This article's aim to describe the impact of COVID-19 crisis on surgical training and trainees, and the potential long-term effects of the pandemics on the specialist training programmes globally Due to COVID-19 pandemic being prioritized, trainees are called to help support the increased workload of the hospital units and emergency department Caring for patients is our primary role It is important to be ready to forgo previously conceived ideas of defined roles and be able to adapt to a fast-evolving scenario Of note, in some countries like Spain, Italy, Portugal, and the United Kingdom, recently graduated medical students are being appointed to join health forces at an earlier stage in their career, to face the overwhelming COVID-19 emergency More importantly, some governments decided to maintain the status of "junior doctors" or trainees for those who were due to complete their training programme during the COVID-19 outbreak Many trainees felt that a more appropriate policy would have been to allow them graduating, and then appoint them as consultants It is difficult to draw conclusions on this in the context of an emergency, but this should be considered in the future and pathways of conduct should be defined at the time of developing surgical training programmes Surgical trainees are at the frontline of many hospitals In most cases, they are being required to provide medical support during the crisis As future surgeons, their careers are likely to be affected by the COVID-19 outbreak in several ways Once COVID-19 emergency is settled, revision of the training programmes to include the critical issues raised during the crisis is desirable, globally Finally, only through the efforts of all team members including consultants as trainers, trainees, and other health workers we are going to be able to overcome COVID-19 pandemic