NAMAH-An Innovative Tele-ECHO Mentoring Program to Foster Well-being Among Physicians

The current study aimed to develop and implement the National Assistance in Mental Health for Health Care Providers (NAMAH) module, which focused on wellness and building resilience for a cohort of physicians.

The NAMAH module is a 12-week tele-mentoring program leveraging videoconference technology that uses the ECHO (Extension of Community Healthcare Outcome) HUB and SPOKE and consists of real-life case discussions and a brief didactic. The module's content was developed after iterative feedback from experts and incorporated suggestions from healthcare providers (HCPs) following a needs assessment. A pre and post-design was used to assess the impact of the module on psychological distress using the self-reported Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10) and burnout using the Maslach Burnout-Inventory-Human Services Survey (MBI-HSS) among the 32 physicians who participated.

There was a significant decrease in the mean scores before (19.5 ± 6.27) and after (17.38 ± 6.23) the NAMAH module (p < .05) in the psychological distress as measured by K 10 with a Cohen's d of 0.41 (95% CI: 0.05-0.77). There was also a significant decrease in the mean scores after the intervention in the emotional exhaustion and depersonalization domain of the MBI-HSS with a medium effect size (Cohen's d of 0.65) and large effect size (Cohen's d of 0.94), respectively.

The findings from this pilot study lay a foundational framework, encouraging further exploration, research, and scaling-up of such interventions to enhance mental health among physicians and HCPs.