School of Human and Community Development (ETDs)

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Browsing School of Human and Community Development (ETDs) by Author "Baloyi, Cindy"

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    Trainee psychologists’ experiences of professional development during the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-08) Baloyi, Cindy; Jithoo, Vinitha
    The declaration of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in March 2020 resulted in unprecedented and transformational effects on professional psychology programs. Professional psychology programs were confronted with several legal, practical, and ethical challenges associated with delivering appropriate training while also ensuring the safety of trainees, supervisors, and clients. An emergency remote teaching and supervision plan was launched to mitigate these challenges. However, the online platforms were a foreign territory for most trainees and trainers and required familiarisation before mastery. The aim of this study was to explore the experiences of trainee psychologists’ professional development during the COVID-19 pandemic in South African universities. The current study was also undertaken to explore trainees’ experiences of online practical work. Participants in this study were distinctive because they were the first cohort of professional trainees to be exclusively trained online. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a sample of twelve intern psychologists. Subsequently, the data was analysed using thematic content analysis. The findings suggested that only the delivery mode in which learning and teaching took place changed, but the curriculum remained the same. However, the change in delivery had implications for trainees’ mental health, academic goals and expectations. Trainees reported initial anxiety and uncertainty associated with the unknown use of online platforms. Despite support from the university and their lecturers, they noted challenges related to constant academic changes that were implemented on a trial-and-error basis, studying from home in suboptimal environments, managing home and work balance, and counselling clients in a new and different therapeutic framework. Psychological assessments and community work were difficult to adapt to online platforms. In addition to the challenges faced, however, there were unexpected opportunities that positively impacted trainees’ learning and acquisition of profession-wide competencies.