An Adapted Online Family Medicine Training for House Officers Amid Covid-19 Pandemic in Egypt

Abstract

Introduction The COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented challenge to house officers training programs because of the safety measures. Objective This current study aimed to introduce the adaptation of family medicine training for house officers during COVID-19 pandemic and gauge their level of satisfaction with the training. Methods Unfortunately, more than one-fourth of the house officers attending the family medicine training turned out to be hospital-admitted or in obligatory home isolation. A time-sensitive plan was proposed to maintain a competent training guaranteeing safety and support of house officers and fulfilling the training objectives in a virtual setting. Three mentors were assigned to each 10 house officers to provide continuous support and monitoring. Tutor and house officer interaction and reflection were maintained through a virtual clinical training session via Zoom application and a daily online discussion of a clinical scenario. Peer interaction was provided through post-webinar and small-group online discussion sessions. Results The adapted training was applied on thirteen cohorts of house officers. The response rate was 70% (666 out of 950). Most of them were satisfied with the training (84.6%). Their satisfaction with each modality of the training was encouraging. Conclusions During COVID-19 pandemic, successful adaptation of family medicine training has succeeded in fulfilling the training objectives and providing psychological support and engagement for house officers without burdening the hospital-admitted and home-isolated house officers.