Redeployed PM&R Trainees Rely on Pro-Social Behavior during COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Survey Analysis

The wellbeing and emotional resilience of healthcare workers are key components in maintaining essential health care services during the COVID-19 virus outbreak and beyond. This survey, distributed to physiatry trainees who were redeployed as general medicine physicians taking care of COVID-19 positive patients, sought to find out how trainees were dealing with the existing crisis and to identify their coping strategies used at this time of extreme uncertainty. Trainee wellness and burnout were objectively measured using the Physician Well Being Index (PWBI) and the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Human Services Survey (MBI-HSS) respectively. Independent qualitative analysis was applied to the survey’s free response section, which revealed trainees predominantly relied on pro-social coping mechanisms during this time. It furthermore highlighted that trainees desired strong leadership and system wide initiatives geared towards increasing transparency and communication amongst staff. Investigating trainee response at a time of abnormal stress can help trainee programs and hospital systems determine how to implement future initiatives that proactively protect trainee’s mental health in the short and long term.