Ameliorating Work Burnout and Medical Residents

Summary

Prior research has demonstrated that during residency years, in particular training to obtain a medical specialty, work burnout is a very prevalent problem. Work burnout is defined as a syndrome of dysfunction in three domains, emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and a reduced sense of personal accomplishment. (Maslach et. al., 1981). Often, burnout has been associated with poor sleep quality and negative affectivity, such as depression and anxiety. In fact, our preliminary data demonstrate that burnout in medical residents affects sleep quality, and increases negative emotions. Strikingly, burnout in medical residents negatively impacts working performance as well as patient-physician interactions, and hence may affect the quality of health care. However, lacking are studies aimed at understating how work burnout affects cognitive performance and decision making in medical residents. The proposed study will provide essential groundwork in demonstrating the link between burnout and impaired cognitive performance. In addition, the proposed study will demonstrate feasibility for a future trial to test whether an intervention, emWave, integrating a computer based stress management (resilience training), can have a positive impact on residents with high burnout symptoms. The amelioration of psychological risk factors in medical residents may lead to improved physician-patient relationships in the service of improved quality of care.

Conditions

• Burnout, Professional
• Depression
• Stress
• Anxiety
• Distress

Interventions

DEVICE

emWave

Our approach will be to test the impact of this intervention through a smartphone application, emWave software, which will be provided to all our subjects. emWave is a tool that reduces stress by allowing individuals to be less reactive, think clearly, and make good decisions, especially under pressure. Fifty medical residents with high burnout symptoms will be randomized to receive an 8-week intervention (emWave - computer based resilience training program).

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Larkin Community Hospital

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• John S Samaan, MD MPH · Larkin Community Hospital

• Marcos Sanchez-Gonzalez, MD PhD · Larkin Community Hospital

• Juan D Oms, MD · Larkin Community Hospital

Study Design

Allocation

NON_RANDOMIZED

Purpose

OTHER

Masking

SINGLE

Model

SINGLE_GROUP

Eligibility

Min Age

25 Years

Max Age

50 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2015-07-01

Primary Completion

2016-07-30

Completion

2016-07-30

Countries

• United States

Study Locations