Abstract
BackgroundProfessional burnout among medical trainees has been identified as a national concern in need of attention. A significant challenge for residency programs is designing and implementing effective strategies to promote resident wellness and reduce burnout. Emerging evidence highlights the importance of developing organizational changes targeting physician burnout.MethodsTo address this critical need, Harvard South Shore (HSS) Psychiatry Residency Training Program aimed to assess burnout among residents, identify areas for wellness-related growth, and implement strategies for organizational change to reduce burnout and increase wellness. We aligned closely to the Standards for Quality Improvement Reporting Excellence (SQUIRE) 2.0 guidelines to systematically approach planning, conducting, and evaluating this quality improvement effort. We developed a wellness action team and assessed burnout using the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (CBI). We also conducted a survey to investigate high opportunity areas for wellness-related growth and using this data we designed and implemented four organizational initiatives to (i) improve residents’ on-call experience, (ii) increase social activities, (iii) support preventative care, and (iv) promote wellness education. We then re-assessed burnout 1 year after implementation and performed two-sample t-tests to compare CBI scores. We additionally gathered and analyzed feedback from residents on the implemented organizational initiatives’ relevance to wellness and their well-being.ResultsThere was an overall clinically meaningful reduction in burnout averaged among all residents that participated. Participants indicated that fitness-oriented activities were most likely to lead to change in wellness habits.ConclusionOur implemented wellness program was resident-led and involved continuous feedback from both residents and leadership. Given that there may be multiple factors that affect resident burnout, future studies involving a control group could help reveal whether our intervention contributed to the change in burnout scores we observed.
Highlights
Professional burnout among medical trainees has been identified as a national concern in need of attention
Based on American Medical Association (AMA)’s definition, we developed a list of various activities that would cover these aspects of wellness
Future research involving a control group is necessary to establish whether our wellness program had an effect on burnout scores
Summary
Professional burnout among medical trainees has been identified as a national concern in need of attention. Due to the inherent challenges of medical training, residents may feel exhausted, disenchanted, detached, Mari et al BMC Medical Education (2019) 19:437 positive personal health practices are associated with increased patient satisfaction and improved patient adherence to treatment [13]. In response to these outcomes, in 2017, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) revised their Common Program Requirements to address the need to reduce burnout and improve wellness among residents. The literature does identify the need for organizational structures to promote wellness, the evidence for specific, concrete strategies remains limited
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