Abstract
The ongoing outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has drastically affected medical societies. We aim to provide an overview and summarize the information published so far concerning the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on ophthalmology residency programs and the mental wellbeing of trainees, and to establish factors to help maintain successful residency training to ensure high-quality, specialist ophthalmic training. A literature search was conducted in October 2021 of the PubMed database for articles assessing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of ophthalmology trainees and on ophthalmology residency programs. Cross-sectional survey studies, editorials, articles in scientific journals, letters to editors, and commentaries were considered; finally, 19 studies were included after excluding abstract-only publications and conference posters. The studies’ demographic details, participant characteristics, interventions, outcomes, and limitations were extracted. Our summarized information showed the alarmingly significant impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on ophthalmology trainees’ mental health and the associated considerable changes in ophthalmic training programs. Thus, in future, virtual training and surgical simulators should be permanently introduced, in addition to traditional teaching, to complete successful ophthalmology residency programs. Additionally, we emphasize the need for a widely facilitated and encouraged access to psychological support programs for healthcare workers, including ophthalmologists.
Highlights
IntroductionPublisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations
It is well known from studies conducted in the past concerning the mental wellbeing of healthcare workers related to the pandemic, and reviews involving healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, that healthcare workers are at a higher risk of adverse psychiatric implications, especially those working in emergency units, intensive care unit (ICU), and infectious disease wards [30,31]
Liang et al [32] showed that there was no significant difference in the occurrence of anxiety and depression among medical staff in the COVID-19-associated units and other departments, which was consistent with the frequent presence of these symptoms in ophthalmology trainees
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. The novel coronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2), responsible for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), was first identified in China at the end of 2019 [1]. The rapid spread of COVID-19, resulting in a global threat to public health, led the World Health Organization to declare the disease a pandemic on 11 March. The growing number of people affected with SARS-CoV-2 worldwide prompted immediate action to divert healthcare resources towards the treatment of patients with
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