Maintaining the Fire but Avoiding Burnout: Implementation and Evaluation of a Resident Well-Being Program

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Surgical Training
• Psychology

Background:

• Few programs exist to enhance surgical resident well-being.
• Existing efforts often lack formal evaluation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the impact of a formal well-being and resiliency program on general surgery residents.
• To evaluate changes in emotional intelligence, burnout, stress, and resident satisfaction.

Main Methods:

• General surgery residents participated in the Energy Leadership Well-Being and Resiliency Program.
• Assessments included the Energy Leadership Index, Maslach Burnout Inventory, Perceived Stress Scale, Beck Depression Inventory, and ACGME surveys.
• Paired t-tests and chi-square tests were used for pre- and post-intervention comparisons.

Main Results:

• Energy Leadership Index scores improved (p=0.03).
• Perceived stress (p=0.05) and emotional exhaustion (p=0.04) significantly decreased.
• Resident satisfaction and positive evaluations of the program increased substantially (80% to 96%).

Conclusions:

• Formal implementation of a well-being program positively impacted residents' emotional intelligence, stress, burnout, and satisfaction.
• The study highlights the importance of formal evaluation for program reproducibility and scalability.
• Such initiatives have the potential for widespread positive effects on resident well-being.