Resident Physician Burnout and Well-being

Resident Physician Burnout and Well-being: One Intervention and Its Impact

Pilot study shows that two hours of weekly protected non-clinical time is associated with decreased burnout and increased well-being in otolaryngology residents

Burnout amongst physicians is high with resulting concern over quality of care. With burnout beginning early in training, much-needed data is lacking on interventions to decrease burnout and improve well-being amongst resident physicians. The primary objective was to design and evaluate the impact of a departmental-level burnout intervention for otolaryngology residents. The secondary objective was to describe how residents utilized and perceived the study intervention.

All current residents in the Department of Otolaryngology at the University of Minnesota were solicited for participation. Inclusion criteria included all residents willing to complete the study protocol. Exclusion criteria included the principal investigator. All 19 eligible residents consented to participate. All participants were assigned two hours of weekly, protected non-clinical time alternating with a control period of no intervention at 6 week intervals.

Burnout was measured by the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) and Mini-Z Questionnaire (Mini-Z). Well-being was measured by the Resident and Fellow Well-Being Index (WBI) and a quality-of-life (QOL) single-item self-assessment (SA). In addition to baseline demographic survey, participants completed the aforementioned surveys at approximately 6-week intervals from October 2017 to July 2018.

Inclusion Criteria:

- all resident physicians (PGY1 - PGY5) in the Department of Otolaryngology that were willing to complete the study protocol

Exclusion Criteria:

- principal investigator(s) were excluded from participation