Experiences of Medical Residents and Faculty Members on Adhering to Professional Commitments and Training during Covid Pandemic: A Qualitative Study

During the COVID-19 pandemic era, adhering to professional commitments can be a major challenge. This study aims to document the experiences of medical residents and faculty members on the challenges of adhering to professional commitments during the COVID-19 pandemia and its impacts on clinical education.

This qualitative study (using a descriptive phenomenology and purposive sampling method) was conducted in 2020, comprising 14 participants (faculty members and infectious diseases residents of Qazvin University of Medical Sciences) to share their experiences on the challenges of strict adherence to professional behavior. Data were collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews. The transcribed interviews were analyzed based on the Colaizzi approach.

Ninety extracted primary codes are classified to two main areas: problems in adherence to professional commitments and the impact of COVID-19 pandemia on educational and research activities mandatory for professionalism. In the first area, the three main themes includes reducing effective patient-physician communication, non-maleficence and violating justice, and the second, two main themes includes a rise in non-professional behavior when dealing with patients (cutting down the quantity and quality of training, reducing supervision and decreased clinical engagement with patients) and a rise in non-professional behaviors in the research area.

The most important problem negatively affecting professional commitments during corona epidemy is role overload and the deterioration of physician-patient relationship. Due to the influence of role modeling on student professional behavior, it is helpful to include the training of related skills that can reduce the incidence of these problems in the clinical settings.