Humanistic Stories About the Workplace and Resident Wellness: a Missing Connection?

Abstract

Burnout is common among residents. A 2018 nation-wide survey of 50 medical schools found that 45% of residents experienced at least one major symptom of burnout, or a sense of detachment, emotional exhaustion and a blunted sense of accomplishment [1,2,3]. A 2019 systematic review revealed a 33.7% prevalence of burnout specifically among psychiatry residents [4]. Many factors contribute to burnout including patient complexity; volumes and workload; various and increasing tasks associated with patient care that may be perceived as "non-physician tasks"; large and complex hospitals; and institutional, interpersonal, and cultural detachment from the learning environment [5].During the course of a decade at one academic hospital-based psychiatry residency training program, trainees exhibited evidence of higher than expected rates of burnout as measured by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) survey as well as through internal observations and measures. Though most survey responses were comparable to other Graduate Medical Education (GME) programs' responses, psychiatry trainees reported a lower "sense of belonging" than other GME trainees. After reviewing survey results, consulting the literature, and obtaining feedback from residents, we hypothesized that psychiatry trainees in our large and complex hospital system may experience feelings of contextual detachment, which we define as feelings of separation from one's institutional, interpersonal, and cultural environment. Finding Meaning and CommunitySeveral initiatives have been designed to address detachment and combat burnout by promoting social connection. Examples include reflection groups, structured social events, individual wellness check-ins by chief residents, resilience workshops, and sharing stories about patient care [6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15]. Many of these initiatives, while anecdotally beneficial, require considerable institutional resources and trainee time. Furthermore, no study to date has explored story sharing on the institutional, interpersonal, Terms of use and reuse: academic research for non-commercial purposes, see here for full terms. http://www.springer.com/gb/openaccess/authors-rights/aam-terms-v1

Short Take: Lowering the Access Barriers to Ethnographic Methodology

“…Using this methodology, I produced six manuscripts (at varying stages ranging from project conception to proofing), including Pham et al (2020aPham et al ( , 2020bPham et al ( , 2020c.…”