Abstract

Background: The occupancy program as a part of the clinical services itself has been told by the COVID- 19 outbreak. Several reports have been published regarding the impact of COVID- 19 on the occupancy programs; still, all studies were performed in developed countries or didn't exhaustively assay what residers suppose about the COVID- 19 impact on their occupancy program. We delved the impact of the COVID- 19 epidemic on the pediatric surgery occupancy program in our institution as an important part of sanitarium medical services.

Methods: We developed and distributed a questionnaire to pediatric surgery resides in our institution who were registered from January 2015 – July 2020. The questionnaire was conforming of 24 questions a) the perspectives of resides about COVID- 19 infection during their occupancy program; b) the literacy process; c) academic evaluations; and d) resides' suggestions to ameliorate the quality of their occupancy program during the outbreak.

Results: Utmost (82.6) pediatric surgery residers agreed that optional surgeries should be laid over during the epidemic. Before the outbreak, nearly all(82.6) residers used handbooks and journals as their primary sources of literacy, while during the outbreak,69.5 of residers shifted to use online lectures either from the academy or Association of Pediatric Surgeons. Interestingly, 91.3 of actors agreed that they had further time to complete their academic assignments during the epidemic.

Conclusions: The epidemic has had a significant impact on the development of pediatric surgery occupancy programs. Also, the responses to the questionnaire are affected by the senility and coitus of the residers. A comprehensive approach is demanded to maintain the high standard of capability of pediatric surgery without compromising our safety from the COVID- 19 infection threat.