Gnanavel S, Mathur R, Sharma P, Parmar A. COVID-19 and psychiatry training: A cross-national trainee perspective. World J Meta-Anal 2021; 9(5): 405-410 [DOI: 10.13105/wjma.v9.i5.405]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Sundar Gnanavel, MBBS, MD, Doctor, Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust, Walker gate park, Newcastle upon Tyne NE6 4QD, Tyne and Wear, United Kingdom. sundar221103@yahoo.com
Research Domain of This Article
Psychiatry
Article-Type of This Article
Opinion Review
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Sundar Gnanavel, Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust, Newcastle upon Tyne NE6 4QD, Tyne and Wear, United Kingdom
Rahul Mathur, Department of Psychiatry, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi 110034, India
Pawan Sharma, Department of Psychiatry, Patan Academy of Health Sciences, Patan 44700, Nepal
Arpit Parmar, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Bhubaneswar 110029, India
Author contributions: Gnanavel S conceptualised and prepared the manuscript; Mathur R, Sharma P, and Parmar A provided valuable inputs and proof read the manuscript before submission.
Conflict-of-interest statement: No conflicts of interest pertaining to this manuscript.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Sundar Gnanavel, MBBS, MD, Doctor, Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust, Walker gate park, Newcastle upon Tyne NE6 4QD, Tyne and Wear, United Kingdom. sundar221103@yahoo.com
Received: April 20, 2021 Peer-review started: April 20, 2021 First decision: July 14, 2021 Revised: August 6, 2021 Accepted: September 4, 2021 Article in press: September 4, 2021 Published online: October 28, 2021
Abstract
The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has significantly altered many aspects of our professional lives, including how psychiatry as a medical discipline is taught and learnt. Training in psychiatry relies on developing competencies through observing and interacting with patients, developing empathic consultation skills and seeking feedback from colleagues derived from cognitive and constructivist theories of learning, in a time-bound manner. The pandemic has drawn attention to the dual role of psychiatry residents as both trainees and physicians, with a pressing identity crisis at an inopportune time. This paper aims to illustrate some of the emerging themes in psychiatry training during the pandemic and some solutions for the same.
Core Tip: There is an urgent need to streamline processes for entry and exit to a psychiatry training program, where it does not exist. Utilizing alternative modes of assessment including anonymized colleague, peer and patient feedback can supplement online assessment tools. Curricular adjustments taking current circumstances into account would be well appreciated by trainees. The most important recommendation we propose is provision of formalised intensive training around teleconsultation skills, using simulated scenarios followed by assessment, in addition to guidelines and modus operandi around remote working.
