Conclusions
The COVID-19 pandemic has placed unprecedented strain on the healthcare
system and prompted dramatic resource reallocation to minimize patient
morbidity and mortality. These resource shifts have resulted in major
changes to previous routines of urology residents. Our study has
identified several potential actions that could be taken by residency
programs and hospital administration which may optimize urology resident
well-being, morale, and education. These include advocating for access
to PPE, providing support at both the residency program and
institutional levels, instituting telehealth education programs, and
fostering a sense of shared responsibility for COVID-19 patients. Our
study was limited in scope to urology residents. However, to our
knowledge, ours was one of the first national study characterizing
COVID-19 pandemic responses among American trainees. Importantly, these
findings, if appropriately validated, could be applied to non-urology
trainees. Thus, we recommend further research with a large national
study of trainees from all specialties to assess the validity and
generalizability of our findings.
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