Behind the Mask II

The COVID-19 pandemic presented the medical education community with unprecedented challenges. Little is known about the impact of the pandemic on professional identity formation (PIF) in matriculating students. The objective of this study is to explore the impact of COVID-19 on PIF in a cohort of first-year medical students using mask-making and narrative reflection. This study took place in the spring of 2021. Following IRB approval, Penn State College of Medicine’s University Park Entering Class of 2020 (n=12 students) was invited to create a mask to express the impact of COVID-19 on their sense of professional identity.  In addition, students completed a written narrative and a brief survey to further explore how COVID-19 has affected their learning and professional development. Basic descriptive statistics were used to analyze survey responses. Visual thematic analysis was used to analyze the masks and principles of grounded theory with iterative constant comparison was used to extract emergent themes from student narratives. Ten students completed the survey. Five students further completed the reflection and created a mask. Students generally felt that the pandemic strengthened their resolve to become a physician and were optimistic that training will eventually return to normal. When analyzing masks and narratives, COVID was mentioned only in the context of qualities of an ideal physician, but not when relating elements of self-identity. The most salient domains coded within the mask and narrative included “habits” and “personal characteristics”, respectively. While COVID has had a significant impact on medical training, this cohort of first year students exhibited remarkable resilience, reported minimal emotional impact from the pandemic, and shared themes of developing strong habits and laudable professional characteristics as more central to their developing sense of PIF than any specific element of COVID.