Part One of this two-article series reviews assessment tools to measure burnout and other negative states. Physician well-being goes beyond merely the absence of burnout. Transient episodes of burnout are to be expected. Measuring burnout alone is shortsighted. Well-being includes being challenged, thriving, and achieving success in various aspects of personal and professional life. In this second part of the series, we identify and describe assessment tools related to wellness, quality of life, resilience, coping skills, and other positive states.

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When working in a chaotic Emergency Department (ED) with competing priorities, clinical teaching may be sacrificed for the sake of patient flow and throughput. An organized, efficient approach to clinical teaching helps focus teaching on what the learner needs at that moment, incorporates regular feedback, keeps the department on track, and prevents over-teaching. Effective clinical teaching in a busy environment is an important skill for senior residents and faculty to develop. This review will provide a critique and comparison of seven structured teaching models to better prepare readers to seize the teachable moment.

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Purpose To determine whether a brief leadership curriculum including high-fidelity simulation can improve leadership skills among resident physicians. Method This was a double-blind, randomized controlled trial among obstetrics–gynecology and emergency medicine (EM) residents across 5 academic medical centers from different geographic areas of the United States, 2015–2017. Participants were assigned to 1 of 3 study arms: the Leadership Education Advanced During Simulation (LEADS) curriculum, a shortened Team Strategies and Tools to Enhance Performance and Patient Safety (TeamSTEPPS) curriculum, or as active controls (no leadership curriculum). Active controls were recruited from a separate site and not randomized to limit any unintentional introduction of materials from leadership curricula. The LEADS curriculum was developed in partnership with the Council on Resident Education in Obstetrics and Gynecology and Council of Residency Directors in Emergency Medicine as a novel way to provide a leadership toolkit. Both LEADS and the abbreviated TeamSTEPPS were designed as six 10-minute interactive web-based modules. The primary outcome of interest was the leadership performance score from the validated Clinical Teamwork Scale instrument measured during standardized high-fidelity simulation scenarios. Secondary outcomes were 9 key components of leadership from the detailed leadership evaluation measured on 5-point Likert scales. Both outcomes were rated by a blinded clinical video reviewer. Results One hundred ten obstetrics–gynecology and EM residents participated in this 2-year trial. Participants in both LEADS and TeamSTEPPS had statistically significant improvement in leadership scores from “average” to “good” ranges both immediately and at the 6-month follow-up, while controls remained unchanged in the “average” category throughout the study. There were no differences between LEADS and TeamSTEPPS curricula with respect to the primary outcome. Conclusions Residents who participated in a brief structured leadership training intervention had improved leadership skills that were maintained at 6-month follow-up.

BackgroundThe administration of health screeners in a hospital setting has traditionally required (1) clinicians to ask questions and log answers, which can be time consuming and susceptible to error, or (2) patients to complete paper-and-pencil surveys, which require third-party entry of information into the electronic health record and can be vulnerable to error and misinterpretation. A highly promising method that avoids these limitations and bypasses third-party interpretation is direct entry via a computerized inventory.ObjectiveTo (1) computerize medical and behavioral health screening for use in general medical settings, (2) optimize patient acceptability and feasibility through iterative usability testing and modification cycles, and (3) examine how age relates to usability.MethodsA computerized version of 15 screeners, including behavioral health screeners recommended by a National Institutes of Health Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research collaborative workgroup, was subjected to systematic usability testing and iterative modification. Consecutive adult, English-speaking patients seeking treatment in an urban emergency department were enrolled. Acceptability was defined as (1) the percentage of eligible patients who agreed to take the assessment (initiation rate) and (2) average satisfaction with the assessment (satisfaction rate). Feasibility was defined as the percentage of the screening items completed by those who initiated the assessment (completion rate). Chi-square tests, analyses of variance, and Pearson correlations were used to detect whether improvements in initiation, satisfaction, and completion rates were seen over time and to examine the relation between age and outcomes.ResultsOf 2157 eligible patients approached, 1280 agreed to complete the screening (initiation rate=59.34%). Statistically significant increases were observed over time in satisfaction (F 3,1061=3.35, P=.019) and completion rates (F 3,1276=25.44, P<.001). Younger age was associated with greater initiation (initiated, mean [SD], 46.6 [18.7] years; declined: 53.0 [19.5] years, t 2,155=−7.6, P<.001), higher completion (r=−.20, P<.001), and stronger satisfaction (r=−.23, P<.001).ConclusionsIn a rapid-paced emergency department with a heterogeneous patient population, 59.34% (1280/2157) of all eligible patients initiated the computerized screener with a completion rate reaching over 90%. Usability testing revealed several critical principles for maximizing usability of the computerized medical and behavioral health screeners used in this study. Further work is needed to identify usability issues pertaining to other screeners, racially and ethnically diverse patient groups, and different health care settings.

Part One of this two-article series reviews assessment tools to measure burnout and other negative states. Physician well-being goes beyond merely the absence of burnout. Transient episodes of burnout are to be expected. Measuring burnout alone is shortsighted. Well-being includes being challenged, thriving, and achieving success in various aspects of personal and professional life. In this second part of the series, we identify and describe assessment tools related to wellness, quality of life, resilience, coping skills, and other positive states.

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