COVID-19 - Implications on Surgeons' Burnout and Career Satisfaction

This is a cross-sectional survey which will be distributed online between surgeons. The survey was proposed by a consensus of consultants of surgery and revised by an improvement consultant. It consists of a semi-structured questionnaire that is provided in English language. A subsequent translation in different Language will provided based on geographical distribution. The survey will be conducted online through an online survey development cloud-based software (SurveyMonkey®; San Mateo, CA, USA). Participants will be aware of the nature of the survey and informed that they will be listed as co-authors. Collected data will be confidential and anonymous.

The first sector of the questionnaire includes trainee demographics and baseline characteristics. Then the questionnaire aims to compare the trainee experience before and after the pandemic with focus on research activities, clinical, and surgical practice.

Statistical analyses will be performed using SPSS v. 20. Data distribution will be tested for normality using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test and the Shapiro-Wilk test. Categorical variables will be expressed as group percentages and will be compared for independent samples using the Chi-square test. Continuous data of the survey will be presented as medians with ranges or means and standard deviations. A comparison of continuous data will be compared for independent samples using the T-test or Mann-Whitney test according to the data distribution. Spearman correlation coefficient will be used for further assessment of the strength of the association between variables. The statistical significance level will be set at <0.05.