Challenges in the Cardiothoracic and Vascular Anesthesia Fellowship Program Since the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Pandemic: An Electronic Survey on Potential Solutions

Abstract

\n Objective\n We explored the current practice of fellowship training in cardiothoracic and vascular anesthesia and surveyed the acceptability of potential solutions to mitigate the interrupted fellowship training during the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.\n \n Design\n A prospective electronic questionnaire-based survey.\n \n Setting\n The survey was initiated by the Education Committee of the European Association of Cardiothoracic Anesthesiology and Intensive Care (EACTAIC)\n \n Participants\n EACTAIC fellows, EACTAIC and non-EACTAIC subscribers to the EACTAIC newsletter and EACTAIC followers on different social media platforms.\n \n Interventions\n After obtaining the consent of participants, we assessed the peri-operative management of COVID-19 patients, infrastructural aspects of the workplace, local routines for preoperative testing, the perceived availability of personal protective equipment (PPE) and the impact of COVID-19 on fellowship training. In addition participants rated suggested solutions by the investigators to cope with the interruption of fellowship training using a traffic light signal scale.\n \n Measurements and Main Results\n We collected 193 responses from 54 countries. 82.4% of respondents reported cancelling or postponing elective cases during the first wave. Of the respondents, 89.7% had provided care for COVID-19 patients, 75.1% reported staff in their center being reassigned to work in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), and 45% perceived a shortage of PPE at their centers. Most respondents reported the termination of local educational activities (79.6%) and fellowship assessments (51.5%) because of the pandemic (although 84% of them reported having time to participate in online teaching), and 83% reported a definitive psychological impact. More than 90% of the respondents chose green and/or yellow traffic lights to rate the importance of the suggested solutions to cope with the interrupted fellowship training during the pandemic.\n \n Conclusions\n The COVID-19 pandemic led to the cancellation of elective cases, deployment of anesthesiologists to intensive care units, involvement of anesthesiologists in perioperative care for COVID-19 patients, and interruption of educational activities and trainees’ assessments. There is some consensus on suggested solutions for mitigation of the interruption in fellowship training.\n