Enhancing eXcellence Through Community, Empowerment, and Learning (EXCEL): a Pilot Study of a Self-Determination...

Health sciences trainees experience substantial distress from factors derived from the learning environment. Yet traditional training programs rarely provide structured opportunities to build autonomy-supportive nontechnical skills needed to navigate these challenges. To address this gap, we developed and evaluated a novel peer-led psychoeducational group intervention designed for health sciences trainees grounded in Self-Determination Theory (SDT). This program aimed to strengthen trainees' access to resources supporting competence, relatedness, and autonomy through three structured components: psychoeducation, guided discussion, and targeted skill-development. A pre-post design was used to collect Work-Related Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction Scale (BPNS-W) and perceived stress data, and the post-session survey included items from the Session Wants and Needs Outcome Measure (SWAN-OM) and two general evaluation questions. Mean-level paired analyses demonstrated a significant increase in resource acquisition related to autonomy, and perceived stress decreased significantly from pre- to post-session. Importantly, latent change score modeling revealed substantial variability in individual trajectories, and indicated trainees with lower baseline basic psychological need satisfaction showed the largest gains, which were statistically significant across all three SDT domains. Trainees positively evaluated the program, reporting that they felt listened to, and were able to identify self-support strategies and explore their feelings. Participants also indicated that they found the sessions helpful and were likely to attend future sessions. Together, this study supports the utility of an SDT-informed, peer-facilitated intervention model for reducing trainee perceived stress and strengthening resources in support of basic psychological need satisfaction.