Hospital Spiritual Care Can Complement Graduate Medical Trainee Well-Being

Burnout and depression among physician trainees is increasing at an alarming rate. Promoting well-being is of utmost importance for graduate medical education. The primary objective was to determine if spiritual care staff/chaplaincy can assist in building emotional well-being and resiliency within medical residency education.

For the academic year of July 2017 through June 2018, all graduate medical trainees in our institution were given the option of attending either an individual or group spiritual care session as part of a universal "Call to Wellness" curriculum. A Post-Wellness Survey was administered to measure perceptions about the program.

49% (N = 258) of residents chose to participate in a spiritual care session. Prior to the session, 51% (N = 132) rated their overall well-being as neutral and 25% (N = 64) rated their overall well-being as slightly positive, positive, or very positive. After their spiritual care session, significant improvement was seen. 25% (N = 64) rated their overall well-being as neutral, and 51% (N = 132) rated their overall well-being as slightly positive, positive, or very positive (p < 0.001).

Spiritual care staff/chaplaincy can have a positive influence on emotional well-being for physicians during residency training.