Coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic impact on Obstetrics and Gynecology residents' case logs

ABSTRACT

Objective The COVID-19 Pandemic has drastically affected healthcare systems worldwide. Precautionary measures taken by healthcare systems involved decreasing nonurgent clinical loads so as to optimize hospital resources. This decrease is expected to affect training and residency programs, as difficulties meeting surgical program requirements may be encountered. This brief report analyzes the impact of COVID-19 on surgical case logs of fourth- and sixth-year obstetrics and gynecology (OBGYN) residents at Singhealth. Design Retrospective review of case logs. Methods This is an audit of the case logs of fourth- and sixth-year residents from the ACGME-I Case Log System. Cases were collected at the end of the academic years of 2019 and 2020, which close at the end of June. Data of the total obstetric, benign gynecological and gynecological-oncology resident case logs from 2017 to 2020 were collected for trending. Results There was a 14.29% decrease in mean number of cases logged by the fourth-years between 2019 and 2020, compared to a 6.84% increase for the sixth-years. There was a significant decrease between benign gynecological and obstetric cases for the fourth-year residents (P = 0.001). The year-to-year trends for obstetric, benign gynecology and gynecological-oncology cases of fourthand sixth-year residents remain grossly unchanged from 2017 to 2020. Conclusions Despite the re-prioritization of hospital resources and the changes in case log numbers, residents are able to meet the surgical training requirements stipulated by the ACGME-I, suggesting that, in spite of COVID- 19, surgical training and education are not compromised.