PURPOSE

In addition to the damaging public health, social and economic effects of COVID-19, health professions faculty around the world have faced staggering upheaval in the education of their students and junior doctors. Despite the formidable challenges, some silver linings have emerged in health professions education. The paper aims to describe themes from reflections of international health professions educators on these silver linings using an appreciative inquiry framework.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

We performed a qualitative analysis of written reflections from a group of 115 international educators from medicine, nursing, dentistry, and the allied health professions describing a personal experience with an educational approach or work strategy arising during the COVID-19 pandemic that should be sustained.

RESULTS

We identified 13 thematic units of reflections regarding advances in health professions education during the pandemic. The most notably optimistic and pioneering were and . Other frequent themes included unexpected successes in and .

CONCLUSION

Several points of optimism from this otherwise catastrophic world event have emerged. This analysis serves as a useful guide for further research to understand, sustain and promote positive changes during a global pandemic on health professions education.