Strategies for Maintaining Educational Standards in Medical Oncology Residency Training in the Era of COVID-19: Experien
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Strategies for Maintaining Educational Standards in Medical Oncology Residency Training in the Era of COVID-19: Experience from a Canadian Cancer Centre Roochi Arora 1
&
Som D. Mukherjee 1
Accepted: 16 September 2020 # American Association for Cancer Education 2020
To the Editor: We are writing in response to the recent paper in the JCE by Chua and colleagues, “Changing the Landscape of Medical Oncology Training at the National University Hospital in the Philippines during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID19) Pandemic.”1 We are writing to share our medical oncology residency training program’s recent, similar challenges and innovative solutions to maintain training requirements throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic has placed tremendous strain on health care systems worldwide. Hospitals have dramatically increased patient volumes, and outpatient clinical care has been significantly reshaped. As described in a recent article by Chua et al., 1 the transition to a more telemedicine-based clinical practice with significantly reduced in-person clinic visits to prioritize the health and safety of the public has undoubtedly impacted medical oncology residency training. Our cancer centre has experienced similar challenges in resident education due to decreased opportunities for case-based learning, cancellation of educational conferences, and temporary redeployment of trainees to clinical services that are lower yield for subspecialty-specific training.1–3 As discussed by Chua et al.,1 the pandemic has necessitated that the medical education system adapt to ensure the educational needs of residents are being adequately met. Our medical oncology residency training program has engaged in many of the proposed solutions described by Chua et al.1 to bolster resident education during this unprecedented time. Specifically, our training program is also using online platforms for oncology residents to attend conferences, tumour boards, and academic teaching sessions.
* Roochi Arora [email protected] 1
Division of Medical Oncology, Department of Oncology, Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Additionally, we have prioritized the provision of psychological support to trainees including regular virtual group wellness sessions and more frequent trainee wellness check-ins with the program director. Our medical oncology residency program has also engaged several other novel strategies beyond those previously described by Chua et al.1 to help maintain educational opportunities for trainees while balancing hospital safety measures. Due to the new physical distancing requirements, fewer teaching faculty are physically present in clinic spaces, and the number of face-to-face visits has largely been replaced by virtual visits. To mitigate this, we employed several unique strategies including virtual clinics with 3-way teleconferencing between the attending physician, resident, and patient. In clinics where cancer patient follow-ups are relatively straight forward, reside
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