Objective:

The aim of this study is to assess the perceptions of the impact of health-care disruption due to COVID-19 on the academic training and skills of surgical trainees.

Material and Methods:

We developed a 32-question survey assessing the clinical and surgical impact of COVID-19 on surgical training programs and proposals to compensate for the decrease in surgical education. We got 453 responses of surgical trainees in Mexico City.

Results:

Sixty-six percent of the respondents answered that their centers had converted to the exclusive attention of COVID-19 patients. Ninety-five percent reported a decrease in surgical skills learning and 91.8% reported a decrease to clinical exposure. On proposals, 75.6% reported that it is essential to take the necessary measures to recover the clinical and surgical milestones lost. In the binary logistic regression analysis, we found that the postgraduate year (≥ PG-Y3) was statistically significant factor (p ≤ 0.000) related to a favorable opinion to developing an academic contingency plan and postponing the end of the academic residency year.

Conclusion:

More than 90% of the survey respondents reported having been affected by COVID-19 mitigation strategies. Our data calls for urgent training adjustments by hospital and university program leaders to mitigate downstream educational repercussions.

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