Has the COVID-19 Pandemic Opened Our Eyes to the Potential of Digital Teaching? A Survey of UK Vascular Surgery and Interventional Radiology Trainees.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on the educational opportunities for all doctors. Within the UK, restrictions have meant that most teaching sessions and conferences have been cancelled. Subsequently, there has been a rapid shift towards online digital teaching (DT), principally involving video webinars to help maintain ongoing education. Although not new, DT has not been widely adopted for medical training within the UK. Given this unprecedented shift, the aim was to gain insight into the implementation of DT in the teaching of vascular disease by surveying UK vascular surgery and interventional radiology trainees.

A questionnaire was formed to investigate trainees previous (pre-COVID) and current use of DT, their experiences using the technology, and recommendations on its future use. The survey was endorsed by the trainee societies representing UK vascular surgeons (Rouleaux Club) and interventional radiologists (British Society of Interventional Radiology Trainees), who distributed it to their memberships. Although vascular and interventional radiology trainees were the primary target, for breadth and greater insight the survey was also open to junior surgical (“core surgical trainees” or equivalent) and clinical radiology trainees who had an interest in vascular diseases, and speciality and associate specialist doctors in both specialities.

Fifty-two responses were obtained, with 49/52 (94.2%) from those in a training scheme. With the exception of Northern Ireland, at least one response was obtained from each health education deanery across the UK.

Prior to the pandemic, over half of respondents (27/52, 51.9%) had no experience of attending a DT session and only 3/25 (12%) reported undertaking a session more than once per week. Of those with experience, international based courses/webinars were the most commonly attended 15/25 (60%), with limited experience on a regional (3/25) or departmental (2/25) level.

Since the pandemic, 49/52 (94.2%) had attended a DT session, with attendance at national based courses being the most popular (34/49, 69.4%). Interestingly, since COVID, experience of regional (22/49, 44.9%) and departmental DT (22/49, 44.9%) were more common and 34/49 (69.4%) attended a session more than once per week. Zoom (Zoom Video Communications Inc, USA) (34/49, 69.4%) and Microsoft Teams (Microsoft Corporation, USA) (32/49, 65.3%) were the most frequently used software.

Overall, 30/49 (61.2%) were “satisfied” and 19/49 (38.8%) “very satisfied” with their experience of DT; however, technology problems (e.g., poor internet connection, software/applications not working) were frequent (33/49, 67.3%). When asked about after the pandemic, 40/52 (76v.9%) recommended using DT in conjunction with conventional “face to face” teaching and 42/52 (82.1%) agreed that the modality would help them better prepare for postgraduate exams.

The COVID pandemic has presented an opportunity to embrace new technologies in the delivery of medical education. DT affords a number of benefits including flexibility on the timing of teaching and removing travel requirements. This survey demonstrates the underutilisation of DT prior to COVID and the rapid transformation which has occurred. Encouragingly, respondents reported the broad use of DT, from departmental teaching through to national/international level. Courses, such as the highly regarded “ESVS mastercl@ss”, the VSGBI's “ASPIRE Digital” and the BSIR's weekly webinar series have all demonstrated the feasibility of DT to remotely deliver a curriculum on a national/international level. The results of this survey identify positive opinions about such sessions. Feedback from events, such as “ESVS Month” will further indicate the applicability of DT for major international conferences, something which until recently would have seemed inconceivable.

This survey has limitations, namely the low response rate. Based on a total of 209 vascular surgery and estimated 75 interventional radiology trainees (the primary target population), the response rate was 18.3% (52/284). , This is not unexpected as the survey was conducted during the height of the COVID pandemic; however, it increases the risk of bias in the results. The survey also focussed on UK trainees; however, the themes are universal to many trainees throughout Europe and therefore these results should be generalisable across the continent.

Looking forward, the role DT will play when restrictions are lifted is unknown. The modality has limitations, especially in terms of providing “hands on” experience, which is a vital part of training and has itself been impacted during the pandemic. Furthermore, learning via DT can be tiring and may provide less stimulation than traditional modalities. This survey however indicates an appetite among UK trainees to reconsider the way teaching of vascular disease is provided. The observed successes highlight the desire for DT to provide a complementary role in future education; DT cannot replace practical training but could complement it with online based theory and discussion. Further investigation of the opinions of trainers will obviously be vital in helping shape its future applicability.

When “normality” returns, the lessons learnt during the pandemic should help to shape and improve ongoing teaching in the future, not just in the UK, but throughout Europe.

Conflicts of Interest

None.

Funding

None.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Rouleaux Club and British Society of Interventional Radiology Trainees (BSIRT) for helping to promote the survey and all the participants who responded. The full survey is available at https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/NPSDWQ2.