Impact of COVID 19 pandemic on thesis by anaesthesia trainees in a tertiary care institute of north India

ABSTRACT

Background and aims: The COVID19 pandemic prioritises care for COVID patients and working practices in hospitals have been radically adjusted accordingly. It has deeply impacted structured anaesthesia training in medical institutes. Conduct of thesis by trainees (mandatory research work as a partial fulfilment for requirement of degree) especially with non-COVID19 related topics has also been affected. Aim of this cross-sectional, observational trial is to assess the impact of COVID19 pandemic on thesis by anaesthesia trainees in a tertiary care institute of north India. Methodology: After obtaining institute ethical committee approval, the study protocol was prospectively registered with Clinical Trial Registry of India (CTRI/2020/12/029724). Eligible anaesthesia trainees (MD as well as DM super-specialty courses) of Department of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care at our institute were asked to fill the self-administered questionnaire using Google forms. Submission of Google forms was considered as consent for participation. Duration of the survey was limited to 1 week. The primary objective was to assess number of thesis affected by ongoing pandemic. The secondary objective was to find factors affecting the conduct of thesis during pandemic. Results: Out of 92 eligible anaesthesia trainees, 85 responded to the questionnaire. 71 (83.52%) perceived some delays in the conduct of thesis. During thesis planning phase, the most common cause was inability to meet statistician, followed by delay in topic selection, and inability to meet the mentors. During study execution phase, travel restriction for patients, curtailment of elective surgeries as well as investigators' COVID duties/ quarantine leaves were more commonly associated with delay. During study completion phase, inability to have frequent meetings with mentors as well as to get statistical analysis done resulted in delay. Conclusion: Conduct of non-COVID19 related thesis by anaesthesia trainees have been significantly affected during the COVID19 pandemic.