how did the covid-19 pandemic affect the clinical skills and competencies among new general physicians: a qualitative study

Background: amidst the covid-19 crisis, many new general physicians who were medical interns during the pandemic were deprived of clinical rotations, new learning situations, and educational opportunities. this situation has resulted in a lack of confidence in graduates for fulfilling their duties as physicians.objectives: this study was designed to investigate the clinical education challenges of new general physicians who were medical interns (sixth and seventh-year medical students) during the covid-19 pandemic.methods: this qualitative conventional content analysis study was conducted from november 2022 to february 2023in iran. data were collected using semi-structured in-depth interviews to understand the educational challenges of medical graduates during covid-19 pandemic. seventeen purposefully retrieved and participated in the study. after data saturation, analysis was performed using graneheim and lundman's approach (2004).results: the data analysis from interview coding led to the extraction of two main categories: ineffective clinical education and inadequate outcome, with seven subcategories including poor management clinical education planning, clinical resource restriction, online learning pitfalls, skills, attitude and knowledge needs, and deficiency in professional interactions.conclusion: the results showed that the crisis caused by the covid-19 pandemic had a serious impact on achieving the desired competence of new general physicians who completed part of their clinical training during that period. therefore, attention and planning through continuing medical education (cme) is essential.