Assessing Psychiatry Resident Well-being: A Narrative Review of Measurement Instruments

This narrative review aimed to synthesize the instruments used to evaluate psychiatry resident well-being.

A search was conducted across PubMed, ERIC, and PsycINFO on August 24, 2024. Studies were included if they involved psychiatry residents and reported outcomes utilizing either validated instruments or sufficient methodological detail on tools developed by the residency program. Domains of interest included mental health symptoms, stress, burnout, engagement, quality of life, social support, and behavioral risk factors.

Thirteen studies from six countries met inclusion criteria. Eight used at least one validated instrument, and five employed surveys developed by their residency programs. Sixteen validated tools were identified: the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II), Primary Care Evaluation of Mental Disorders (PRIME-MD), Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K6), Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), Social Phobia Inventory (SPIN), Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (CBI), Oldenburg Burnout Inventory (OLBI), Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES), Multicultural Quality of Life Index (MQLI), Interpersonal Support Evaluation List (ISEL), Stephenson Multigroup Acculturation Scale, Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90), Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT), and the Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependence. Internal consistency across instruments was generally strong (α ≥ 0.70). Surveys developed by residency programs often lacked psychometric reporting, limiting comparability.

Psychiatry residency programs have access to a diverse set of validated instruments for assessing resident well-being. However, inconsistent usage, limited validation of locally developed tools, and lack of longitudinal assessments highlight the need for standardized frameworks to inform well-being assessment and institutional changes within psychiatry residency programs.