Background: Understanding the hierarchy in medical education is considered one of the hidden curriculum agendas that help to guide the medical trainees throughout their careers in healthcare. However, many negative aspects to the hierarchy and a few positive aspects have been uncovered in recent years. The COVID-19 pandemic had a tremendous impact on the healthcare system, deploying healthcare workers, including trainees from their primary speciality training to help caring for COVID-19 patients. The effect of hierarchy on medical trainees in such situations has not been discussed before. This study aims to uncover whether the COVID-19 pandemic emergency had any impact on the hierarchical system among healthcare workers.
Methods: Individual semi-structured virtual interviews were conducted with six residents from different residency programs who were redeployed from their primary subspeciality to work with COVID-19 patients in different healthcare facilities across the country. The interviews aimed to uncover the resident's experience with the hierarchical structure while working in a diverse COVID-19 team. Responses were analysed qualitatively using an interpretive approach.
Result: Interviews yielded data broadly covered the aspects of 1. The impact of hierarchy during the pandemic on the resident's training in the absence of academic and clinical teaching and the limited exposure to clinical cases where the primary focus was treating COVID-19 patients. 2. The functional and dysfunctional impact of hierarchy on team dynamic before the COVID-19 pandemic from the residents 'perspective when they worked with different teams before the pandemic. 3. The functional and dysfunctional impact of hierarchy on team dynamic during the COVID-19 pandemic where some aspects of hierarchy, like mentorship, were prominent among teams. 4. The resident personal experience with the COVID-19 team during the pandemic in terms of team diversity and the war zone experience. The trainees described in a narrative approach the hierarchy impact on their experience during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Conclusions: The COVID-19 pandemic impacted the hidden curriculum of medical hierarchy in both functional and dysfunctional ways. This period underscored positive hierarchical elements, such as role clarity and team leadership, which were often overlooked pre-pandemic, while also exposing limitations that hindered flexibility and inclusivity.
Keywords: COVID-19; Leadership; Medical education; hidden curriculum; hierarchy.