Perception of the Theoretical Academic Experience of Residents of Medical Specialties during the COVID-19 Pandemic in a Highly Complex University Hospital

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic generated profound changes in the learning and medical education processes. These changes were facilitated, in many cases, by virtual learning tools. Undoubtedly, these tools were of great help to guarantee the continuity of the learning processes; however, it is undeniable that they constitute an alternative that does not replace the acquisition of skills in clinical settings. In general, these changes take on greater significance when we talk about clinical practice scenarios in hospitals, mainly due to the restrictions generated by the pandemic, where access to patients and surgical procedures were significantly affected or decreased. This decrease had a direct impact on the training process for residents of medical-surgical specialties worldwide. In this sense, the need arose to know the resident's perception of the different medical-surgical specialties, in the face of the changes generated by the COVID-19 pandemic in their academic training. A survey was conducted among the residents of the San Ignacio University Hospital to find out their perception. In this article, we present the experience of a highly complex university hospital, which is the practice setting for more than 30 medical specialty programs.