KEY POINTSSARS-CoV-2 disease (COVID-19) is a major challenge for healthcare systems and physicians and may impact young otolaryngologists’ training and clinical practice.The COVID-19 outbreak negatively influenced otolaryngologists’ clinical activity and training in Italy.Interventions to evaluate and address residents’ training gaps are needed.Online lectures represent a promising strategy to cope with the current situation while laying the foundations of a structured high-quality national teaching curriculum.A lack of training on the use of personal protective equipment, oxygen ventilation systems and COVID-19 therapies has been highlighted.INTRODUCTIONSince February 21, 2020 Italy has been witnessing a massive COVID-19 outbreak and Italian hospitals have been rapidly overcrowded with COVID-19 patients. In keeping with current recommendations of the Italian Ministry of Health, all non-urgent surgeries have been postponed1 with a major shift of resources towards pandemic management, profoundly affecting the training of Otorhinolaryngology (ENT) residents2. Currently, residency programs face the challenge of establishing the effects of the disruption of training on procedural skills and competency development in order to effectively address training gaps. Moreover, since current information indicates that roughly 10% of Italian cases have been among health-care workers, the impact of the disease on trainees deserves to be evaluated.A nationwide survey has therefore been conducted to assess the impact of COVID-19 on ENT residency programs and gain information that could be employed to implement compensative strategies to maintain high-quality standards of training.MATERIALS AND METHODS