North Texas GME Research Forum 2023
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Division
North Texas
Hospital
Medical City Arlington
Specialty
Internal Medicine
Document Type
Poster
Publication Date
4-28-2023
Keywords
graduate medical education, internship and residency, wellness, psychological well-being, surveys
Disciplines
Internal Medicine | Medical Education
Abstract
Residency is a demanding period of training that requires long hours and prolonged periods of high mental functioning coupled with an emotionally and physically exhausting work load. Nearly half of all physicians experience burnout. Research has suggested that symptoms of burnout are present even in the earliest parts of physician training and the COVID-19 pandemic presented unique factors to the most recent groups of residents. The various burnout screening tools discussed in literature are limited by barriers of cost and lack of specificity for residency. In response to these findings, program specific resident wellness initiatives are now required for accreditation. Research utilizing standardized wellness interventions suggests that there is need for a wellness program that is directed toward the specific needs of a resident community. Two different graduate medical education programs developed a survey to measure resident wellness; the survey includes parameters regarding burnout, depression, personality, optimism, life satisfaction, and social desirability. Utilizing this ten-item scale, residents from Healthcare Corporation of America (HCA) North Texas (NTX) Healthcare Consortium were invited to participate in an anonymous wellness survey. There were total 45 responses to the survey. As these are baseline parameters with no comparative measures, results were grouped into greatest three subjective strengths and weaknesses of the program. Top three strengths were as follows: Feeling supported by coworkers; knowing who to call when something tragic happened; feeling proud of the work you did. Top three weaknesses were as follows: Feeling of connection to work; feeling that one’s work makes the world a better place; feeling eager to come back to work tomorrow. Using these initial results, more specific wellness interventions within the HCA NTX Program can be tailored to its specific strengths and weaknesses. It can be extrapolated from the survey results that residents feel a relatively strong sense of interpersonal support and personal pride in their work, however there is relative negative perception of the overall healthcare environment. The next step in the process is to organize regular resident feedback sessions to identify more specific interventions for resident wellness. Currently a quality improvement project is underway to implements several of these measures. Repeat resident wellness surveys will be administered to estimate the effect of these interventions.
Original Publisher
HCA Healthcare Graduate Medical Education
Recommended Citation
Cushing, Andrew H. and McCarroll, Michele, "A Residency Wellness Survey: Understanding Baseline Resident Wellness: Developing Residency Program Specific Wellness Interventions" (2023). North Texas GME Research Forum 2023. 12.
https://scholarlycommons.hcahealthcare.com/northtexas2023/12