Background: Newly qualified medical practitioners (interns) in South Africa (SA) are part of the frontline healthcare workers who face Africa’s most severe COVID-19 pandemic within an environment already burdened with tuberculosis, HIV and trauma epidemics. 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. This study explored the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats posed by the COVID-19 pandemic as reflected on by interns within clinical training platforms in SA. Methods: An online survey tool consisting of ten 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. Due to lockdown restrictions, all data were collected remotely with the survey instrument being distributed via the social media platform WhatsApp. Three coders thematically analysed data until consensus was reached. Results: Forty-six first- and second-year 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, being in a learning environment, and specific learnings realised. Existing challenges in the environment exacerbated the threats posed by COVID-19 and innovative strategies related to improving support, feedback and broadening the intern curriculum were identified. In addition, the use of online training around holistic care and intern evaluation was mooted as an innovation to develop out of this pandemic. 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.
Medical internship training during the COVID-19 pandemic – a case of ‘sacrificial pawns’ or not?