Program changes help reduce resident burnout
As you watch eager new residents start their training, I know it’s hard to think about trainee burnout, but it’s a serious issue in resident education. The beginning of the year is the perfect time to address burnout risk factors and wellness as I recently found out while writing an article on the subject for Residency Program Alert.
Although the face-paced, high-stress environment of residency training makes some thrive, the long hours and immense pressure of being responsible for patients’ lives can take a toll on trainees. One of the biggest stressors for residents is handling difficult or complicated patients, says Jodie Eckleberry-Hunt, PhD, who recently published a study on resident burnout and wellness.
Although caring for challenging patients is something you address with your residents, consider surveying them about the specific scenarios or situations that really stress them out. Develop educational activities around these areas, such as speaker panels during which residents can ask faculty how they would handle the situation, or role playing exercises. Stepping up your ethics curriculum can also help residents tackle several tough scenarios.
Similarly, inefficient or ineffective systems and processes can cause residents stress. For example, an assistant program director recently told me about his department’s efforts to define practice guidelines for prescribing narcotics to patients. Before their efforts, his hospital was known as an easy drug facility, and residents spent a lot of time stressing about what to do about drug-seeking patients. Now, with new practice guidelines in place, residents don’t expend so much energy worrying about how to handle those situations.
How do you monitor and help prevent burnout in your program? Leave a comment in the box below.
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Residency Program Alert
Residency Program Alert is the only monthly resource that brings you best practices and tools from the most well-respected experts working in the field.
RPA has written 15 posts.
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