Finding the sweet spot: Developing, implementing and evaluating a burn out and compassion fatigue intervention for third year medical trainees

Abstract

Medical trainees are at high risk for developing burnout. Introducing trainees to the risks of burnout and supporting identification and proactive responses to their 'warning' signs of compassion fatigue (CF) is critical in building resiliency. The authors developed and evaluated a burnout and CF program for third year trainees at a Canadian Medical School. Of 165 medical trainees who participated in the burnout and CF program, 59 (36%) provided evaluation and feedback of the program and its impact throughout their year. Participation included self-utilization of a validated CF and burnout tool (ProQOL) across three time-points, workshop feedback, and focus group participation. Results highlighted the importance of 1) Recognizing Individual Signs & Symptoms of Stress, CF and Burnout; 2) Normalizing Stress, CF and Burnout for Students and Physicians; 3) Learning to Manage One's Own Stress. A decrease in compassion satisfaction and increase in burnout between beginning and end of third year were found. Further outcomes highlighted the importance of learning, living and surviving CF and burnout in clerkship. Emergent theory reveals the important responsibility educators have to integrate CF and burnout programs into 'the sweet spot' that third year offers, as trainees shift from theoretical to experiential practice as future clinicians.

Trends in medical students’ stress, physical, and emotional health throughout training

“…As students theoretically gain more efficacy throughout years of training, these specific perceived stress variables improve. Prior studies suggest that wellness continues to decline in advanced years of schooling, specifically with worsening burnout, empathy and compassion fatigue [23][24][25][26]. Our data instead showed overall improvement in all three health domains.…”

Compassion Fatigue, Secondary Traumatic Stress, and Vicarious Traumatization: a Qualitative Review and Research Agenda

“…At the individual level, with regard to mindfulness-based interventions, research has been dedicated to developing and evaluating mindfulness training for secondhand traumaexposed employees (e.g., Craigie et al 2016;Slatyer et al 2018;Wood et al 2017). We recommend that these efforts continue, including work to separate the influence of "trait" and "state" mindfulness (i.e., as in other areas of the literature; e.g., Medvedev et al 2017), and to explore multi-part interventions with training in self-care techniques and at earlier career stages (e.g., during education and prior to formal employment; Tucker et al 2017;Wald et al 2016). Building interventions into earlier occupational and/or organizational entry stages may prove crucial for preventing empathy-based stress and sustaining employees' wellbeing across the lifespan; moreover, the method of delivery and source (e.g., peers, leaders and managers with differing levels of experience and leadership approaches) that optimize impact will be relevant to investigate as well.…”

Caring for the Caregivers: Mental and Spiritual Support for Healthcare Teams During the COVID-19 Pandemic and Beyond

“…Beneficial interventions addressing CF have been published in the past [9][10][11][12]. Several studies described workshops for residents incorporating meditation and self-care as part of the daily routine.…”