Perceived utility and relevance of intern well-being sessions

We conducted a pilot project assessing the perceived utility and relevance of well-being sessions provided to interns at a large regional teaching hospital in Australia, with the aim of promoting intern well-being and fostering a nurturing and supportive learning and work hospital culture.

Our intervention involved two separate 60-min lectures covering well-being topics and skills to approximately 50 interns within protected teaching time, along with emailed well-being resources. Participants were emailed an online survey asking questions about value and novelty of the sessions, and work satisfaction and stress, as well as open comments. A request for an additional interview to explore responses in more depth was included.

Fifty interns attended at least one of the sessions and 35 participated in the survey, six to an additional interview. Survey and interview data showed that the majority of interns perceived the sessions as valuable, relevant and useful and felt that ongoing sessions would benefit junior medical officers in future years. Feedback highlighted the importance of providing future sessions in person, incorporating an interactive approach and emphasised that work site factors and medical culture play a large causative role in their stress.

We conclude that well-being sessions are acceptable and useful to interns and should be incorporated into hospital teaching curricula, and evaluated. However, these programmes are unlikely to change the high stress experienced unless external and systemic stressors are addressed by all stakeholders.