Abstract
INTRODUCTION: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused unprecedented stress to the medical education community, potentially worsening problems like burnout and work-life imbalance that its members have long been grappling with. However, the collective struggle sparked by the pandemic could generate the critical reflection necessary for transforming professional values and practices for the better. In this hermeneutic phenomenological study, we explore how the community is adapting-and even reconceptualising-their personal and professional roles amidst the COVID-19 crisis. METHOD: Between April and October 2020, we conducted 27 (17F, 10M) semi-structured interviews with medical trainees (8), physicians (8), graduate students (3) and PhD scientists (8) working in medical education in Canada, the United States and Switzerland. Data analysis involved a variety of strategies, including coding for van Manen's four lifeworld existentials, reflexive writing and multiple team meetings. RESULTS: Participants experienced grief related to the loss of long-established personal and professional structures and boundaries, relationships and plans for the future. However, experiences of grief were often conflicting. Some participants also experienced moments of relief, perceiving some losses as metaphorical permissions slips to slow down and focus on their well-being. In turn, many reflected on the opportunity they were being offered to re-imagine the nature of their work. DISCUSSION: Participants' experiences with grief, relief and opportunity resonate with Ratcliffe's account of grief as a process of relearning the world after a significant loss. The dismantling of prior life structures and possibilities incited in participants critical reflection on the nature of the medical education community's professional practices. Participants demonstrated their desire for more flexibility and autonomy in the workplace and a re-adjustment of the values and expectations inherent to their profession. On both individual and systems levels, the community must ensure that long-standing calls for wellness and work-life integration are realised-and persist-after the pandemic is over.