Abstract
BACKGROUND: The healthcare system experienced various challenges during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, and a wide range of safety measures were implemented, including limiting the number of patients allowed to visit primary care clinics and follow-up through telemedicine clinics. These changes have accelerated the growth of telemedicine in medical education and affected the training of family medicine residents throughout Saudi Arabia. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the experiences of family medicine residents with telemedicine clinics as a part of their clinical training during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted with 60 family medicine residents at King Saud University Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. An anonymous 20-item survey was administered between March and April 2022. RESULTS: The participants included 30 junior and 30 senior residents, with a 100% response rate. The results revealed that most (71.7%) participants preferred in-person visits during residency training, and only 10% preferred telemedicine. In addition, 76.7% of the residents accepted the inclusion of telemedicine clinics in training if such clinics constituted not more than 25% of the training program. Moreover, most participants reported receiving less clinical experience, less supervision, and less discussion time with the attending supervisor when training in telemedicine clinics compared with in-person visits. However, most (68.3%) participants gained communication skills through telemedicine. CONCLUSIONS: Implementing telemedicine in residency training can create various challenges in education and influence clinical training through less experience and less clinical interaction with patients if it is not structured well. With the growth of digital healthcare, further structuring and testing of a paradigm that involves using telemedicine in residents' training programs prior to implementation should be considered for better training and patient care.