Physician Trading Cards as a Tool to Improve Resident Joy in Medicine while Improving Patient Satisfaction

Joe Dimaggio Children's Hospital ,Lindsay Weiss

doi:10.18297/jwellness/vol3/iss1/3

Abstract

Introduction: To combat resident physician burnout, wellness programming should include approaches that foster joy to work as a physician. Photograph trading cards have been used to improve patient satisfaction but have not been explored as a way to improve physician work satisfaction. We aimed to use trading cards to improve resident physician identification by patients’ families, as well as measure their effect on the hospital experience for patients and residents. Methods: For a one-month period in 2019, trading cards were piloted with the nine residents assigned to the inpatient pediatrics service. Employing five-point Likert scales, surveys were administered to residents and convenience samples of 100 patients’ families before and after card distribution. Results: Compared to families prior, those given trading cards reported increased perceived importance of physician identification and a greater association with care satisfaction. Families’ ability to identify treating physicians increased from 5% to 66% with card distribution (p<0.0001). All 9 residents participated (100% response rate). With the aid of this intervention, all residents either “strongly agreed” or “agreed” that they were better recognized as the physician. One hundred percent of residents “strongly agreed” or “agreed” with the statement “I find joy at work,” compared to 77% prior to intervention. At project completion, 88% either “strongly agreed” or “agreed” trading cards improved work satisfaction. After using trading cards, residents articulated expressions of empowerment to deliver better care, enhancement of physician-patient communication, and improvement of patient experiences. Conclusion: Trading cards can be used as a tool to improve resident physician work satisfaction and joy in medicine, while also improving the hospital experience for patients and families.

Highlights

To combat resident physician burnout, wellness programming should include approaches that foster joy to work as a physician
Studies show that patients frequently have difficulty identifying their hospital care team members and the use of trading cards can improve recognition [1,2,3,4,5,6]
We describe a single institution’s experience piloting the use of trading cards with pediatric resident physicians

Summary

Introduction

To combat resident physician burnout, wellness programming should include approaches that foster joy to work as a physician. Photograph trading cards have been used to improve patient satisfaction but have not been explored as a way to improve physician work satisfaction. We aimed to use trading cards to improve resident physician identification by patients’ families, as well as measure their effect on the hospital experience for patients and residents. Studies show that patients frequently have difficulty identifying their hospital care team members and the use of trading cards can improve recognition [1,2,3,4,5,6]. The distribution of photographs of residents improved patient acceptance of the trainee involvement in their child’s care [5, 9]. Misidentification of residents as non-physicians could contribute to burnout symptoms. When valued identities are not affirmed, emotional distress, a known correlate of burnout, is likely [14]

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