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.