PM2066: Mindfulness in Medicine: Promoting Health, Well-being, and Resilience

Background: Resident burnout is a long-standing issue in medical education with the COVID-19 pandemic causing significant additional burnout burden. Navines et. al. (2021) found current burnout rates of residents as high as 76% (vs 50% prior). Implementation of mindfulness programs have shown to improve physician wellness, decrease burnout, and create environments of resilience (Romcevich et.al 2018, Ireland,et.al 2017). Epstein et. al. (2021) implemented a 4-day mindfulness workshop for physicians, with improvements in emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and patient-centered care. While mindfulness has recently come to the forefront for wellness, few studies describe feasible, longitudinal programs focused on resident wellness. Programs like Search Inside Yourself (SIY) teach mindfulness, emotional intelligence and leadership skills and may assist with mitigating burnout.

Methods: The aims were to assess a feasible, longitudinal mindfulness program (SIY) for residents to combat burnout and stress; build resilience; and improve self-care. After completion of SIY training, Dr. Sawni (pediatrician) and Dr. Wolf (psychologist), taught a modified version to Pediatric and Medicine-Pediatric residents at Hurley Hospital, Flint MI. It consisted of 12 hours, split over 3 consecutive sessions. Pre and post surveys were given, assessing demographics, wellness, and program evaluation. Desired responses to 29 wellness questions (combining Strongly Agree/Agree, Very Often/Often, Strongly Disagree/Disagree, or Rarely/Never) were compared pre to post training. The study was approved by Hurley Hospital IRB.

Results: Of the 29 wellness questions,10 items had a positive change by at least 10 percentage points. There were 5 items, related to distractibility, that decreased by at least 10 points (Table 2). After the program, 93% of attendees said they were Satisfied/Very Satisfied with the program and 93% agreed that the material was relevant to current challenges. Majority (86%) reported feeling ready to apply what they learned.

Conclusion: Mindfulness as an approach to mitigate burnout and stress has been shown to be successful with residents and in limited previous studies. This program is feasible and can be introduced as part of the core residency curriculum. The increase in reported distractibility may be due to the continued pandemic and may be addressed through additional sessions, shown to help burnout and resilience. Limitations include small sample size and limited number of sessions. Future programs will include similar mindfulness interventions to support wellness longitudinally.