An Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis of paediatric cardiology trainee experiences during COVID-19

Medical training during the COVID-19 pandemic has placed extra-ordinary demands on individuals within a context of rapid and iterative systems changes. The contemporaneous lived experience of trainees during this time has mainly been examined with surveys. Our study aims to provide a rich account of the experience of being a trainee during the pandemic to deepen our conceptual understanding of wellness. This holds relevance as we move away from examining the immediate innovations of the pandemic and towards long-term adjustments.

We used Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to explore the experiences of trainees in paediatric cardiology during the pandemic. Five trainees were purposively recruited. Initial semi-structured interviews were held during the first wave of the pandemic with follow-up interviews held during the second wave.

Three superordinate paradoxical themes were recognised in the data: connectedness and isolation, disruption and stasis and vulnerability and strength.

Disruption to routine activities of service delivery, training and home-life pervaded the pandemic and was experienced as stasis. Technology maintained the trainee's connection to the content of work but left them feeling isolated from its context. Vulnerability arose from interplay between illness, uncertainty and perception of risk, contrasted against strength drawn from compassion and the discovery of resilience. Supporting trainees as we emerge from the initial phase of the pandemic requires us to review how we understand and address wellness, including the contribution of organisational and systemic factors to its protection. Participants described varying states of impaired wellness and experienced a normalisation of aspects of vulnerability. We theorise that trainees were able to find opportunities for growth and the development of resilience within the space that this created.