Medical internship training during the COVID-19 pandemic – A case of ‘sacrificial pawns’ or not?
African Journal of Primary Health Care & Family Medicine
| Field | Value | |
| Title | Medical internship training during the COVID-19 pandemic – A case of ‘sacrificial pawns’ or not? | |
| Creator | Singaram, Veena S. Naidoo, Kimesh Ramrathan, Labby | |
| Description | Background: Newly qualified medical practitioners in South Africa (SA) are part of the frontline health care workers who face Africa’s most severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The experiences of interns during the pandemic reflect SA’s preparedness to respond in a crisis and inform strategies that could be adopted to balance training and service in resource-challenged contexts.Aim: To explore the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats posed during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic as reflected on by interns within the clinical training platforms in SA.Setting: Public hospitals in KwaZulu-Natal.Methods: An online questionnaire consisting of eight open-ended questions based on the SWOT framework related to personal and professional perspectives to clinical training during the COVID-19 pandemic was developed using SurveyMonkey. All data were collected remotely via social media platforms. Data were thematically analysed.Results: Forty-six interns reflected on personal and systemic challenges as the major threats and weaknesses in intern training during the COVID-19 pandemic. Extrapolating on strengths and opportunities, there were three overarching learnings interns reflected on. These related to being a medical professional, communities of practice and the development and enhancement of clinical and non-clinical competencies. Existing challenges in the environment exacerbated the threats posed by COVID-19 and innovative strategies related to improving support, feedback, broadening the intern curriculum and online training.Conclusion: Although the clinical environment where interns learn and work is often stressful and overpowered by high service burdens, there are unique opportunities to enhance self-directed learning and graduate competencies, even in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. | |
| Publisher | AOSIS | |
| Date | 2022-01-13 | |
| Identifier | 10.4102/phcfm.v14i1.3103 | |
| Source | African Journal of Primary Health Care & Family Medicine; Vol 14, No 1 (2022); 8 pages 2071-2936 2071-2928 | |
| Language | eng | |
| Relation |
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:
https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/3103/5147
https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/3103/5148
https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/3103/5149
https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/3103/5150
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