Impact on future
Participants were asked to report their level of concern regarding a
variety of additional factors. 59% of trainees expressed feeling
worried about “not receiving enough training before I graduate,” and
43.9% expressed concerns about their ability to achieve future career
goals. Cancellation of training courses and conferences directly
impacted 60-70% of participants. For those nearing the completion of
training, 16.6% reported that they were impacted by cancellation or
rescheduling of interviews, and 23.4% were impacted by change in
qualifying exam schedules. A third of respondents (35.3%) felt that the
pandemic has had a negative impact on their ability to secure a job or
fellowship at the completion of training, and 14.9% reported that the
pandemic had impacted decisions regarding their future. These concerns
were more prevalent in senior level trainees, with a majority (54.7%)
reporting a negative impact on their ability to secure a job or
fellowship (Table 3). These impacts included loss of opportunities
(“decreased job availability”; “missing out on a full rotation”;
“diminished surgical experience … will not be able to perform
[specific] cases as a generalist, previously had aimed to”),
considering fellowship training versus general ENT practice (“was
considering private practice… (will need to) see what economics
of the practices will look like”; “considering if fellowship will be
necessary to increase … exposure to surgical cases”),
considering private practice vs. academic practice (“less likely to go
to an academic institution”; “academics [have] more financial
protection”) and needing to delay next steps (“have to delay my
fellowship”; “impact my career timeline”).