Effect of Using Emotional Intelligence, Wellness, and Leadership Training on Lived Experiences of Medical Program Directors Burnout

Zeina Ghossoub,Naim El-Aswad,Relly Nadler

doi:10.13189/ujph.2018.060508

Abstract

Physician burnout is a malignant, contagious phenomenon with significant morbidity and mortality for providers and patients alike. Major problems with physician burnout include lack of awareness, decreased ability to recognize symptoms and poor knowledge in combating the disease. Over 50% of students, residents and physicians are affected by severe burnout. Medical knowledge, practice approaches, and technical proficiency are taught and learned in residency training programs. This is also when self-care habits and work/life balance need to be taught and learned. The literature has shown that medical schools and residency programs/directors need two key ingredients in training that help prevent burnout and mitigate its effects: emotional intelligence (EI) and self-care. Another key factor in the development of physicians and combating burnout is leadership skills. The art and science of teaching medicine is hindered by the susceptibility of the trainers themselves to burnout and its consequences without having the tools to diagnose and combat it. For a residency-based intervention program that targets burnout, it has to start with its leaders/directors. Study: In 2016, 6 program directors from the Houston area underwent a two-day workshop that utilized emotional intelligence, wellness/self-care techniques, and leadership skills training to help them become aware of burnout, acknowledge, and identify it within them and their residents, and take action to combat it. Results: The study showed that the results of the intervention were not only qualitatively significant but were sustained 9 months later. Awareness of burnout, the acknowledgement and actions taken against had helped the directors on a personal, professional and leadership level. The overall average improvement/impact across the 15 items studied was 4.6/5. Conclusion: Training directors using the unique combination of emotional intelligence, self-care techniques and leadership skills maybe an effective intervention against combating burnout in residency programs.

Highlights

There is an overwhelming body of literature that is discussing the phenomenon of physicians’ burnout
Design and Methodology A qualitative research design was used to measure the sustainable effects of a two-day coaching workshop using leadership training, emotional intelligence, and self-care on burnout among program directors. 6 program directors were recruited for a 2-day workshop in a Houston based hospitals
The 6 directors outlined the following as their top burnout contributors, in no particular order: 1. Volume of patients 2

Summary

Introduction

There is an overwhelming body of literature that is discussing the phenomenon of physicians’ burnout. The reasons behind that are its documented effects on physician’s socio-professional life as well as their personal, mental, physical, and emotional health with its consequent negative outcomes on patients and healthcare. Burnout is an indolent process, and it is likened to a malignancy that starts early and continues throughout the life of the medical student, resident and practicing physician. Burnout is characterized by exhaustion of emotions, a sense of lack of meaning in work, feeling ineffective, and a propensity to view patients and people as objects rather than human beings [1]. At the DNA/genotype level, burnout targets our resiliency [2], our adaptive mechanisms, and our coping abilities [3]. Burnout has deleterious professional, mental, emotional, and psychosocial manifestations [4]. Physicians suffer more burnout rates than any other profession in the United States [5]

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Discussion

Conclusion