Impact on future
Participants were asked to report their level of concern regarding a variety of additional factors. 59% of trainees expressed feeling worried about “not receiving enough training before I graduate,” and 43.9% expressed concerns about their ability to achieve future career goals. Cancellation of training courses and conferences directly impacted 60-70% of participants. For those nearing the completion of training, 16.6% reported that they were impacted by cancellation or rescheduling of interviews, and 23.4% were impacted by change in qualifying exam schedules. A third of respondents (35.3%) felt that the pandemic has had a negative impact on their ability to secure a job or fellowship at the completion of training, and 14.9% reported that the pandemic had impacted decisions regarding their future. These concerns were more prevalent in senior level trainees, with a majority (54.7%) reporting a negative impact on their ability to secure a job or fellowship (Table 3). These impacts included loss of opportunities (“decreased job availability”; “missing out on a full rotation”; “diminished surgical experience … will not be able to perform [specific] cases as a generalist, previously had aimed to”), considering fellowship training versus general ENT practice (“was considering private practice… (will need to) see what economics of the practices will look like”; “considering if fellowship will be necessary to increase … exposure to surgical cases”), considering private practice vs. academic practice (“less likely to go to an academic institution”; “academics [have] more financial protection”) and needing to delay next steps (“have to delay my fellowship”; “impact my career timeline”).