WS1a-01: YOU ARE TAKING CARE OF YOUR PATIENTS, STUDENTS AND RESIDENTS. WHO IS MISSING? CREATING A SURGEON WELL-BEING PROGRAM
Hisakazu Hoshi, MD1, James Rucinski, MD2, Sarkis Meterissian, MD3, Barbara Pettitt, MD4; 1University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, 2Weil Cornell Medical College, 3McGill University Health Center, 4Emory University, Department of Surgery
Committee on Faculty Development
Introduction: Physician burnout among those in practice and those in training has drawn national attention. Program accreditation bodies and government agencies have used their leverage to urge training programs to implement systems to prevent and mitigate burnout in trainees. However implementation of prevention/mitigation systems for practicing physicians has been slow despite the significant efforts of surgical professional societies like the American College of Surgeons to create/disseminate materials to educate surgeons. Surgeons are at higher risk than the general population for burnout and its serious personal consequences, and evidence suggests burnout in a physician can have significant impact on patient outcomes.
Session description: This session is designed to educate participants about the resources available and steps that can be taken to create a surgeon well-being program at their institution. A brief didactic presentation will define burnout, discuss possible causes, present statistics regarding its prevalence in surgeons and discuss how symptoms may present in a colleague or trainee. The “second victim” phenomenon after devastating medical/surgical error will also be discussed. Participants will strategize, based on their institutional and departmental experiences and resources, how to prevent and mitigate physician burnout, focusing on building resilience, and will discuss approaches, including environmental and institutional change, to prevent surgeon burnout and promote wellness.
Learning objectives
At the completion of the workshop, participants will be able to:
Describe the causes and symptoms of burnout in surgeons
Describe the consequences of surgeon burnout
Create a programming proposal to build resilience in surgeons in their local institutions
Describe possible environmental and institutional change at home that would prevent/mitigate burnout, and steps to initiate such change