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Professional roles and relationships during the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative study among US clinicians

OBJECTIVE: The COVID-19 pandemic has transformed healthcare delivery in the USA, but there has been little empirical work describing the impact of these changes on clinicians. We conducted a study to address the following question: how has the pandemic impacted US clinicians’ professional roles and...

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Autores principales: Butler, Catherine R, Wong, Susan P Y, Vig, Elizabeth K, Neely, Claire S, O'Hare, Ann M
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BMJ Publishing Group 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7995668/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33766845
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-047782
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author Butler, Catherine R
Wong, Susan P Y
Vig, Elizabeth K
Neely, Claire S
O'Hare, Ann M
author_facet Butler, Catherine R
Wong, Susan P Y
Vig, Elizabeth K
Neely, Claire S
O'Hare, Ann M
author_sort Butler, Catherine R
collection PubMed
description OBJECTIVE: The COVID-19 pandemic has transformed healthcare delivery in the USA, but there has been little empirical work describing the impact of these changes on clinicians. We conducted a study to address the following question: how has the pandemic impacted US clinicians’ professional roles and relationships? DESIGN: Inductive thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews. SETTING: Clinical settings across the USA in April and May of 2020. PARTICIPANTS: Clinicians with leadership and/or clinical roles during the COVID-19 pandemic. MEASURES: Emergent themes related to professional roles and relationships. RESULTS: Sixty-one clinicians participated in semi-structured interviews. Study participants were practising in 15 states across the USA, and the majority were White physicians from large academic centres. Three overlapping and inter-related themes emerged from qualitative analysis of interview transcripts: (1) disruption: boundaries between work and home life became blurred and professional identity and usual clinical roles were upended; (2) constructive adaptation: some clinicians were able to find new meaning in their work and described a spirit of collaboration, shared goals, open communication and mutual respect among colleagues; and (3) discord and estrangement: other clinicians felt alienated from their clinical roles and experienced demoralising work environments marked by division, value conflicts and mistrust. CONCLUSIONS: Clinicians encountered marked disruption of their professional roles, identities and relationships during the pandemic to which they and their colleagues responded in a range of different ways. Some described a spirit of collaboration and camaraderie, while others felt alienated by their new roles and experienced work environments marked by division, value conflicts and mistrust. Our findings highlight the importance of effective teamwork and efforts to support clinician well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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spelling pubmed-79956682021-03-26 Professional roles and relationships during the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative study among US clinicians Butler, Catherine R Wong, Susan P Y Vig, Elizabeth K Neely, Claire S O'Hare, Ann M BMJ Open Health Services Research OBJECTIVE: The COVID-19 pandemic has transformed healthcare delivery in the USA, but there has been little empirical work describing the impact of these changes on clinicians. We conducted a study to address the following question: how has the pandemic impacted US clinicians’ professional roles and relationships? DESIGN: Inductive thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews. SETTING: Clinical settings across the USA in April and May of 2020. PARTICIPANTS: Clinicians with leadership and/or clinical roles during the COVID-19 pandemic. MEASURES: Emergent themes related to professional roles and relationships. RESULTS: Sixty-one clinicians participated in semi-structured interviews. Study participants were practising in 15 states across the USA, and the majority were White physicians from large academic centres. Three overlapping and inter-related themes emerged from qualitative analysis of interview transcripts: (1) disruption: boundaries between work and home life became blurred and professional identity and usual clinical roles were upended; (2) constructive adaptation: some clinicians were able to find new meaning in their work and described a spirit of collaboration, shared goals, open communication and mutual respect among colleagues; and (3) discord and estrangement: other clinicians felt alienated from their clinical roles and experienced demoralising work environments marked by division, value conflicts and mistrust. CONCLUSIONS: Clinicians encountered marked disruption of their professional roles, identities and relationships during the pandemic to which they and their colleagues responded in a range of different ways. Some described a spirit of collaboration and camaraderie, while others felt alienated by their new roles and experienced work environments marked by division, value conflicts and mistrust. Our findings highlight the importance of effective teamwork and efforts to support clinician well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic. BMJ Publishing Group 2021-03-25 /pmc/articles/PMC7995668/ /pubmed/33766845 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-047782 Text en © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2021. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.
spellingShingle Health Services Research
Butler, Catherine R
Wong, Susan P Y
Vig, Elizabeth K
Neely, Claire S
O'Hare, Ann M
Professional roles and relationships during the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative study among US clinicians
title Professional roles and relationships during the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative study among US clinicians
title_full Professional roles and relationships during the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative study among US clinicians
title_fullStr Professional roles and relationships during the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative study among US clinicians
title_full_unstemmed Professional roles and relationships during the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative study among US clinicians
title_short Professional roles and relationships during the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative study among US clinicians
title_sort professional roles and relationships during the covid-19 pandemic: a qualitative study among us clinicians
topic Health Services Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7995668/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33766845
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-047782
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