LAUSR

Dear Sir, The COVID-19 pandemic not only has affected the activity of health systems but also the routine of postgraduate medical education [1]. While most non-surgical specialties have experienced an increase in demand, surgical specialties have shown a significant decline in their activity, concentrating mainly on emergency surgeries. In the case of plastic surgery residency (PSR), it presents an additional challenge since most of the surgical activity is elective [2]. For this reason, the PSR has had to design strategies to face the pandemic’s challenging changes. Previously, some authors have published the experience of their plastic surgery services to face this pandemic. Most of these studies have focused on the organizational structure, use of personal protection elements and safety of medical personnel contact with patients [3]. However, there is limited description of concrete measures to maintain resident education. Zingaretti et al. [2] surveyed Italian plastic surgery residents, with 90% of them agreeing that the significant decrease in surgical activity would impact their professional growth, proposing didactical virtual reality simulators to maintain anatomical and surgical training. Sliewah et al. [4] published their experience on the use of virtual education for residents, where they highlight the advantages and benefits of using virtual platforms and webinars. The PSR of the Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile (PUC) lasts 3–4 years, depending on the choice to opt for an additional first year of non-clinical research with a master’s in science degree. We currently have 7 residents: 1 resident in the preclinical year, 2 first-year residents, 3 second-year residents and 1 third-year resident. The average number of monthly surgeries in a year without a pandemic is 50 cases. After COVID-19, this number has decreased to less than 10, negatively impacting residents’ training due to lack of case exposure. While other plastic surgery services have suffered from staff and resident redeployment—or even residency temporary suspension due to such a low surgical caseload—the plastic surgery team of the PUC, together with its medical education department, designed a teaching strategy to deal with these challenges. The first strategy was to reorganize the working team, consisting of one resident and one staff plastic surgeon who run a one-week shift followed by a twoor three-week quarantine at home. During this period, they cover urgent reconstructive surgeries cases of cancer or trauma and the important increase in pressure sores consultations due to Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s00266-020-02005-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.