Impact of a Burnout De-Accelerator in Medical Residents

Sanjana Vig, MD, MBA (Anesthesiology, UCSD), Megan Meyer, MD (Anesthesiology, UCSD), Wendy Campana, PhD (Anesthesiology and Graduate Program in Neuroscience, UCSD) and Mary Blair-Loy (Social Sciences, UCSD)

Summary:

Drs. Campana and Blair-Loy are currently working with physician colleagues in Anesthesiology to address issues of burnout in our UCSD Hospital.  Burnout is a psychological and sociological syndrome characterized by emotional exhaustion, a loss of meaning and sense of accomplishment at work, fatigue and stress.  Studies show that physicians have nearly double the risk of burnout as other professions, after controlling for work hours. Burnout has grave consequences, including decreased job satisfaction and productivity, increased medical errors and malpractice. Studies demonstrate that younger physicians suffer from twice the levels of work-related stress than older physicians, and women physicians are at an even greater risk of fatigue than their male colleagues.

 Recent data from the Climate Survey in the School of Medicine at UCSD indicates that morale for hospital based- physicians is very low and that burnout plays a major role.  We are investigating the effectiveness of a burnout de-accelerator program for second and third year anesthesiology residents. The burnout de-accelerator is based on studies showing that emotional intelligence, a teachable skillset, can provide a buffer to burnout.  Our proposed studies have been submitted to the Center for Empathy and Compassion Institute at UCSD and our Letter of Intent was accepted for a full proposal submission.