Perspective on The Impact of The First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Ophthalmic Residency Training in Nigeria

Background: To describe the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on ophthalmic residency training in Nigeria, as experienced by trainers in their local institutions during the first 12 months of the pandemic. Methods: A nationwide, cross-sectional web-based survey was conducted among ophthalmology trainers in accredited ophthalmic residency training institutions in Nigeria during the 13th month of the pandemic (April 2021). Results: A total of 162 trainers from 30 training institutions responded, yielding a response rate of 63%. The mean age of respondents was 51.3 ± 8.6 years. Respondents were affiliated with federal government-owned hospitals (71%), state government-owned hospitals (20.4%), and mission/private hospitals (8.6%). Trainers reported that COVID-19 had a ‘very severe’ or ‘severe’ negative impact on various aspects of training, including surgical skills transfer (73.5%), clinical skills transfer (48.8%), refraction training (46.3%), soft skills transfer (38.2%), and research training (37.6%) in the first year of the pandemic. Facilities for online learning were available to 125 trainers (77%), while 31 trainers (19%) had access to surgical simulation facilities, 32 trainers (20%) used teleophthalmology, and 68 trainers (42%) had access to Electronic Medical Records (EMR). Teleophthalmology and EMR facilities were more available to trainers in private or mission centers compared to those in publicly-owned training institutions. Conclusions: The COVID-19 pandemic had a significantly negative impact on ophthalmic residency training in Nigeria, with surgical training being the most affected area. Online learning technologies played an essential role in mitigating some of these impacts.