Introduction:

The objective of this work is to describe how health professionals experienced their own course of SARS-CoV-2 through oral testimonies of some members of the Argentine Association of Respiratory Medicine.

Materials and methods:

An ethnographic collection of the corpus was carried out and included the recording and analysis of 13 interviews.

Results:

The findings showed role ambiguity, self-diagnosis and self-treatment; feelings of guilt and fear of complications and con sequences, and / or infecting others. Although they considered themselves empathic prior to falling ill, they revalued the importance of eye contact, listening and dedicating a longer time to each patient a posteriori. Interviewees estimated that improvement in self-care and patient safety will continue in the long run.

Discussion:

Our results share points in common with the bibliography about other diseases, but there are particularities due to the fact that COVID-19 was unknown, pandemic, transmissible to contacts, in a specific collective group, in times of digital communication. In conclusion, the professionals showed role instability, valued family and friendship bonds and made minor criticisms of the health system. The humanitarian character of care was highlighted. Given that after falling ill, the participants believe they have been more empathetic with their patients, it is proposed that teachers of health teams train this quality, with available resources and different from real experience.

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