title: Personal and Professional Well-Being of Surgical Residents in New England.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Although there is increasing literature about burnout and attrition among surgeons, little is known about personal and professional well-being of surgical trainees.
  
  
  METHODS
  General surgery residents from the 6 New England states participated in a cross-sectional, qualitative, self-reported survey to assess the domains of personal health maintenance, personal finance, work environment, and fatigue management as they relate to surgical training.
  
  
  RESULTS
  All surgical residency programs in the New England region were invited to participate. Of these 19 programs, 10 elected to participate in the study. Three hundred and sixty-three total trainees were contacted with requests to participate, and 166 completed responses to the survey, resulting in a response rate of 44.9%. Ninety percent of respondents identified their programs as "university or academic." Substantial cohorts reported that during training they lacked basic healthcare maintenance visits (54%) and had undesired weight gain (44%). Although most found their stipends adequate, three-quarters worried about their finances (75%) and reported substantial educational debt (45%). Most residents enjoyed coming to work; however, the vast majority reported that work-related stress is moderate to extreme (92%). Most also reported that work-related stress negatively affects their overall well-being (72%). The mean Epworth Sleepiness Scale score among respondents was 14, consistent with moderate excessive daytime sleepiness.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Surgical trainee well-being is critical to optimal patient care, career development, and burnout reduction. Surgical residents attend to their own preventive health maintenance, finances, sleep, and stress reduction with variable success. Residency programs should make modest programmatic accommodations to allow trainees to tend to various aspects of their personal well-being.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT. Electronic address: peter.yoo@yale.edu.
authors.forename: Peter S
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Yoo
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT.
authors.forename: John J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Tackett
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT.
authors.forename: Mark W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Maxfield
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT.
authors.forename: Rosemarie
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Fisher
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT.
authors.forename: Stephen J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Huot
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT.
authors.forename: Walter E
authors.initials: WE
authors.lastname: Longo
mesh_terms: D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D013502:General Surgery / Q000193:education*; D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency; D009511:New England; D016272:Occupational Health; D057566:Self Report