The effect of COVID-19 on radiology postgraduate training in Ireland

The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on the healthcare provision, and while it has also had unprecedented effects on medical education and training, the extent has not been fully evaluated.

We wished to assess the effects of COVID-19 on postgraduate radiology training, and due to the structure of postgraduate radiology training in Ireland, this setting allows for the surveying of an entire national cohort of trainees due to the relatively small national population and centralised national training body.

A 70-question survey, covering 11 areas of the training experience, was devised. The survey was reviewed by the national trainee committee and approved by the national training and education committee for radiology. This was distributed to all radiology trainees (n = 124), who were given 2 weeks to submit responses anonymously. The survey was not mandatory.

Out of 124 trainees, 64 (51.6%) submitted responses. A total of 37.5% of respondents felt that their workload had decreased, 23.5% reported that they had been required to take greater than 7 days of leave due to COVID-19 (either primary infection or required isolation due to 'close contact'), 77% felt that their subspecialty rotations had been significantly impacted by COVID-19, and 56.3% of respondents reported a worsening in their sense of wellbeing due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Our survey, which, to our knowledge, is unique in its representation of the entirety of a national postgraduate training programme, has demonstrated trainees' attitudes that there has been a significant, multifaceted impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the quality of their training.