Impact of a family medicine resident wellness curriculum: a feasibility study.
BACKGROUND
Up to 60% of practicing physicians report symptoms of burnout, which often peak during residency. Residency is also a relevant time for habits of self-care and resiliency to be emphasized. A growing literature underscores the importance of this; however, evidence about effective burnout prevention curriculum during residency remains limited.


OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this project is to evaluate the impact of a new, 1-month wellness curriculum for 12 second-year family medicine residents on burnout, empathy, stress, and self-compassion.


METHODS
The pilot program, introduced during a new rotation emphasizing competencies around leadership, focused on teaching skills to cultivate mindfulness and self-compassion in order to enhance empathy and reduce stress. Pre-assessments and 3-month follow-up assessments on measures of burnout, empathy, self-compassion, and perceived stress were collected to evaluate the impact of the curriculum. It was hypothesized that this curriculum would enhance empathy and self-compassion as well as reduce stress and burnout among family medicine residents.


RESULTS
Descriptive statistics revealed positive trends on the mean scores of all the measures, particularly the Mindfulness Scale of the Self-Compassion Inventory and the Jefferson Empathy Scale. However, the small sample size and lack of sufficient power to detect meaningful differences limited the use of inferential statistics.


CONCLUSIONS
This feasibility study demonstrates how a residency wellness curriculum can be developed, implemented, and evaluated with promising results, including high participant satisfaction.
Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA, USA; Christine.runyan@umassmemorial.org.
Christine
C
Runyan
Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA, USA.
Judith A
JA
Savageau
Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA, USA.
Stacy
S
Potts
Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA, USA.
Linda
L
Weinreb
D002055:Burnout, Professional / Q000517:prevention & control*; D003479:Curriculum; D005194:Family Practice / Q000193:education*; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency / Q000458:organization & administration*; D007857:Leadership; D064866:Mindfulness; D055500:Resilience, Psychological; D012577:Schools, Medical / Q000458:organization & administration*; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000517:prevention & control*
burnout prevention; physician wellness; residency education