Education of Infectious Diseases Fellows During the COVID-19 Pandemic Crisis: Challenges and Opportunities

Lisa M Chirch; Wendy S Armstrong; Gayle P Balba; Prathit A Kulkarni; Constance A Benson; Victoria Konold; Vera P Luther; Obinna N Nnedu; Sarah Perloff; Raymund R Razonable; Wendy Stead; George R Thompson 3rd; Michael T Melia

doi:10.1093/ofid/ofaa583

Education of Infectious Diseases Fellows During the COVID-19 Pandemic Crisis: Challenges and Opportunities

Open Forum Infect Dis. 2020 Dec 28;8(2):ofaa583. doi: 10.1093/ofid/ofaa583. eCollection 2021 Feb.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Internal Medicine, The University of Connecticut School of Medicine, Farmington, Connecticut, USA.
² Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
³ Division of Infectious Diseases, Georgetown University Hospital, Washington, DC, USA.
⁴ Infectious Diseases Section, Department of Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA.
⁵ Division of Infectious Diseases and Global Public Health, University of California, San Diego, California, USA.
⁶ Section of Infectious Diseases, Department of Pediatrics, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
⁷ Department of Internal Medicine, Section of Infectious Diseases, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA.
⁸ Infectious Disease Department, Ochsner Clinic Foundation, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.
⁹ Infectious Disease Fellowship Program, Internal Medicine Residency Program, Einstein Medical Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
¹⁰ Division of Infectious Diseases and Internal Medicine, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science, Rochester, Minnesota, USA.
¹¹ Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
¹² Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Internal Medicine, University of California - Davis, Sacramento, California, USA.
¹³ Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.

Abstract

One of the many challenges that has befallen the Infectious Diseases and Graduate Medical Education communities during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is the maintenance of continued effective education and training of the future leaders of our field. With the remarkable speed and innovation that has characterized the responses to this pandemic, educators everywhere have adapted existing robust and safe learning environments to meet the needs of our learners. This paper will review distinct aspects of education and training of the Infectious Diseases fellows we believe the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted most, including mentoring, didactics, and wellness. We anticipate that several strategies developed in this context and described herein will help to inform training and best practices during the pandemic and beyond.

Keywords: COVID-19; fellowship training; medical education; program directors; wellness.

Publication types

Review