Addressing unmet needs of gastroenterologists' training in the post-COVID-19 era.

To the Editor:

We read with interest the article by Pawlak et al about the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on endoscopy trainees, focusing on the decreased number of endoscopic procedures, barriers to training, and the physical and emotional well-being of trainees. With the COVID-19 outbreak the endoscopic training routines was drastically interrupted, leading to a significant gap in medical education. The implementation of virtual training, with webinars held by specialist scientific societies and simulation-based training, should be promoted to meet trainees’ needs. However, can this virtual approach be effective even after the COVID-19 era?

We agree with Pawlak et al that there is an urgent need to provide clear and specific recommendations in a period of substantial confusion for gastroenterologist trainees. Accordingly, we recently carried out a European survey to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on young gastroenterologists’ activity. We showed that the pandemic had a high impact on training activities, according to the majority (84.5%) of participants, whose residual activities mainly concerned urgent endoscopies and oncologic patients. To address this issue, our findings indicated that most participants proposed the extension of the training period (58.4%), some would increase the number of hands-on courses (22.7%), whereas only a small proportion suggested increasing the number of theoretical courses (10.4%) or made similar proposals (5.2%). Hence, we strongly believe that gastroenterologist trainees need to carry out practical activities. The goal will be learning how to balance the safety of trainees with providing endoscopic skills in clinical practice. The implementation of hands-on courses and the relocating of trainees to COVID-free hospitals may be a solution. The extension of the training period will be discussed according to the local prevalence of COVID-19 and hospitals’ reallocation of facilities. Academies and scientific societies should rethink their strategies and adopt national guidelines to give adequate support to gastroenterologist trainees.

Disclosure

All authors disclosed no financial relationships.