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.
【저자키워드】 Burnout, Stress, Workplace, Well-being, training, Competencies, medical interns, self-regulated learning, 【초록키워드】 COVID-19, pandemic, threat, COVID-19 pandemic, hospital, South Africa, Community, Health care worker, First wave, questionnaire, platform, Support, severe coronavirus disease, Perspective, social media platforms, Practitioner, Public, setting, ENhance, Result, collected, exacerbated, eight, analysed, reflected, question, unique, adopted, respond, 【제목키워드】 COVID-19 pandemic,