Abstract
ObjectivePhysicians, including psychiatrists and psychiatry trainees, are at higher risk of burnout compared to the average working population. The COVID-19 pandemic heightens this risk. This pilot aims to enhance professional fulfillment and support while decreasing risk and prevalence of burnout in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (CAP) trainees through virtual delivery of a Balint-like group incorporating brief emotional awareness modules.MethodsSix CAP trainees participated. Eight 60-min sessions held every 2 weeks were co-facilitated by a psychologist and psychiatrist who developed the curricular content. Five of the eight semi-structured sessions combined a brief emotional awareness enhancing module with a Balint-based approach to case review. The authors assessed trainee well-being, professional fulfillment, and sense of professional support pre- and post-intervention with the Well-being Index (WBI), Stanford Professional Fulfillment Index (PFI), and the authors’ own supplemental survey. Descriptive statistics were reported.ResultsTrainees found the curriculum feasible and useful. Surveys showed a reduction in burnout from three to zero participants (p = 0.03) and specific improvements in enthusiasm (p = 0.013), empathy with colleagues (p = 0.093), and connectedness with colleagues (p = 0.007) and patients (p = 0.042) at work. There were also improvements in happiness (p = 0.042) and valued contributions at work (p = 0.004).ConclusionsA novel well-being curriculum focused on combining brief emotional awareness enhancing modules with a Balint-like approach enhances professional fulfillment and a sense of professional support and decreases the risk and prevalence of burnout, even when delivered virtually to a group of CAP fellows. Results support the planned expansion of this low-cost, high-value intervention for trainee well-being.
Highlights
We hypothesized that virtual delivery of a novel well-being curriculum focused on combining emotional awareness skills with themes from the Balint approach would enhance well-being and professional fulfillment, provide a sense of professional support, and decrease the risk and prevalence of burnout in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (CAP) trainees
Medical education has embraced expanding social media and video conferencing technologies in the setting of COVID-19 restrictions and institutional organizations are guiding program directors in these unprecedented times, as evidenced by online content dedicated to COVID-19 [14, 15]
The novel curriculum focused on combining emotional awareness skills with themes from the Balint approach does have the potential to enhance well-being and professional fulfillment, provide a sense of professional support, and decrease burnout risk and prevalence in CAP trainees
Summary
The pilot study population included all six CAP fellows who participated in a total of eight 60-min virtual sessions. To psychologically prime trainee participants to discuss clinical cases from an emotional perspective consistent with the Balint tradition, the group leaders developed novel 5–10min introductory modules used at the start of each session. The authors developed supplementary survey questions to assess trainees’ sense of professional support and screen for burnout (Table 2) All three of these metrics are self-report surveys containing multiple items scored on a Likert scale. Based on responses to each Likert scale item, the PFI derives a composite score to define dichotomous burnout categories and dichotomous professional fulfillment categories [13] These three measures were administered April 2020 prior to the first structured Balint-like session and immediately post-intervention.
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