"Having Support at Work 'Is Different' and Important": A Qualitative Study of Virtual Peer Discussion Groups With Medical School Faculty.

Purpose: In response to the need to support health care professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic, an innovative, peer-led discussion group program for medical school faculty, called CIRCLE (Colleague Involved in Reaching Colleagues through Listening and Empathy), was developed at Rutgers Health. This article describes results of a qualitative analysis of the participants' experiences, explores virtual communication platform use during this peer support program, and identifies the program's beneficial elements.

Method: CIRCLE was inaugurated in October 2020 at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School and Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School using evidence-informed topics. The inaugural CIRCLE peer-led discussion groups included 50 physicians who met twice monthly in groups of 5 to 8 between October 2020 and April 2021. Deidentified transcript data were iteratively reviewed using conventional content analysis, including familiarization, thematic framework creation, indexing, charting, mapping, and interpretation. Themes were grouped into 4 conceptual framework categories based on social support theory in context of work-related stress: emotional, appraisal, informational, and instrumental support.

Results: Themes emerged based on the framework: emotional support (connecting on a deeper level, importance of support at work, COVID-19 made virtual connections needed and relevant), appraisal support (feeling "not alone," safe space to connect and share), informational support (sharing self-care strategies), and instrumental support (incentives to join are helpful but connection leads to engagement, some structure but "not too much" is important, virtual modalities are convenient and conducive to connection).

Conclusions: Benefits of peer discussion groups include deeper connections at work, reduced isolation, safe sharing, and exchange of information on self-care. Connection and balancing structure and autonomy were important to engagement. Virtual modalities were viewed as feasible, convenient, and conducive to connection. This article highlights the benefits and convenience of virtual peer-led discussion groups for medical school clinical faculty and provides evidence for content development of these programs.