Covid-19 crisis impact on the next generation of physicians: a survey of 800 medical students.

BACKGROUND: Many initiatives have emerged worldwide to handle the surge of hospitalizations during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. In France, the University of Paris North called on its medical students, whose status makes them integral members of the healthcare staff, to volunteer in their capacity of medical students and/or as nurses/nursing aids in understaffed intensive care units and other Covid-19 services. We attempted to evaluate their commitment, whether the pandemic affected their certainty for the medical profession and career choices, and how they scored their sadness and anxiety levels. METHODS: The University of Paris North took a weekly official census of the involvement of 1205 4th-6th year medical students during the first lockdown in France. Six weeks after the lockdown began (May 4th), an e-questionnaire was sent to 2145 2nd-6th year medical students. The survey lasted 4 weeks and documented volunteering by medical students, the association between the pandemic and certainty for their profession, their choice of medical specialty and factors that influenced sadness and anxiety scores. RESULTS: 82% of 4th-6th year medical students volunteered to continue their internship or be reassigned to COVID-19 units. Of 802 2nd-6th year students who completed the e-questionnaire, 742 (93%) volunteered in Covid-19 units, of which half acted as nurses. This engagement reinforced the commitment of 92% of volunteers to become physicians. However, at the peak of the outbreak, 17% had doubts about their ability to be physicians, while 12% reconsidered their choice of future specialty. Finally, 38% of students reported a score of 7/10 or more on the sadness scale, and 43% a score of 7/10 or more for anxiety. Neither study year nor service influenced sadness or anxiety scores. However, gender influenced both, with women scoring significantly higher than men (p < 0.0001). CONCLUSION: Medical students of the University of Paris North who made an early and unconditional commitment to help hospital staff handle the pandemic constituted a powerful healthcare reserve force during the crisis. Although the vast majority remained convinced that they want to become physicians, this experience came at a significant psychological cost, especially for women. Alleviating this cost would improve future crisis responses.

Anxiety, depression, trauma-related, and sleep disorders among healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Healthcare workers have been facing the COVID-19 pandemic, with numerous critical patients and deaths, and high workloads. Quality of care is related to the mental status of healthcare workers. This PRISMA systematic review and meta-analysis, on Pubmed/Psycinfo up to October 8, 2020, estimates the prevalence of mental health problems among healthcare workers during this pandemic. The systematic review included 70 studies (101 017 participants) and only high-quality studies were included in the meta-analysis. The following pooled prevalences were estimated: 300 % of anxiety (95 %CI, 24.2-37.05); 311 % of depression (95 %CI, 25.7-36.8); 565 % of acute stress (95 %CI - 30.6-80.5); 20,2% of post-traumatic stress (95 %CI, 9.9-33.0); 44.0 % of sleep disorders (95 %CI, 24.6-64.5). The following factors were found to be sources of heterogeneity in subgroups and metaregressions analysis: proportion of female, nurses, and location. Targeted prevention and support strategies are needed now, and early in case of future health crises.

Daily medical education for confined students during coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic: A simple videoconference solution.

The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection has recently spread globally and is now a pandemic. As a result, university hospitals have had to take unprecedented measures of containment, including asking nonessential staff to stay at home. Medical students practicing in the surgical departments find themselves idle, as nonurgent surgical activity has been canceled, until further notice. Likewise, universities are closed and medical training for students is likely to suffer if teachers do not implement urgent measures to provide continuing education. Thus, we sought to set up a daily medical education procedure for surgical students confined to their homes. We report a simple and free teaching method intended to compensate for the disappearance of daily lessons performed in the surgery department using the Google Hangouts application. This video conference method can be applied to clinical as well as anatomy lessons.

Addictions in the COVID-19 era: Current evidence, future perspectives a comprehensive review.

BACKGROUND: In the context of the COVID-19 worldwide pandemic, an up-to-date review of current challenges in addictions is necessary. While large scale disasters may have an impact on substance use and addictions, the use of some substances is also likely to modify the risk of COVID-19 infection or course. Many countries have imposed lockdowns. Whether this quarantine or the end of lockdown measures will have an impact on substance use is discussed. The aim of this review is to gather knowledge for clinicians and to guide public health policies during/after lockdown. METHODS: PubMed was reviewed in August 6th (2020), to determine the current evidences and observations concerning the addictions and SARS-CoV2. We used all the names of the severe acute respiratory syndrome of coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2 previously 2019 nCoV), the name of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), and common substances of abuse. For the physiopathological parts, searches were conducted using key words such as "infection" or "pneumonia". For the lockdown effects, key words such as "quarantine", "disaster" or "outbreak" were used. RESULTS: Overall, pathophysiological data showed an increased risk of infections for individuals with Substance Use Disorders (SUD) and a possible protective role of nicotine. During lockdown, there is a substantial risk of increasing SUDs. Individuals with opioid use disorder are particularly at risk of relapse or of involuntary withdrawal. After lockdown, increase of use may be observed as far as years after. Individuals with addictions are at higher risk of multimorbidity and mortality during COVID outbreak. CONCLUSION: This review describes useful strategies in clinical practice, including a systematic assessment of addiction comorbidity during this almost worldwide lockdown/pandemic. This review also highlights important areas for future research.