Muffins and Meditation: Combatting Burnout in Surgical Residents.
George Burnet, Carson Platnick, Priya Krishnan, Caitlin K Robinson, Angela Sauaia, Clay Cothren Burlew, Mark R Nehler, Kshama Jaiswal, K Barry Platnick
Journal of surgical education February 2023 DOI: 10.1016/j.jsurg.2022.09.005 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Observational survey study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 85 |
| Population | Surgical residents at Denver Health Medical Center, affiliated with the University of Colorado School of Medicine |
| Interventions | reflection and dialogue |
| Duration | March 2017 through June 2018 |
| Measures | Maslach Burnout Inventory (two-question version) |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Keywords | Burnout General surgery Graduate medical education Quality of life Resident education |
| Key findings | Burnout prevalence was high among surgical residents: 35.7% reported feeling burned out once a week or more and 29.7% reported increased callousness at that frequency. The authors suggest that protected time for mindfulness meditation and shared reflection may be protective, and that barriers to participation should be reduced. |
Abstract
To quantify the prevalence of burnout in our surgical residency program and to assess the impact of a weekly wellness program for surgical residents through validated tools measuring mindfulness, self-compassion, flourishing, and burnout. Our hypothesis was that participants with more frequent attendance would: (1) be more mindful and self-compassionate and (2) experience less burnout and more flourishing. An optional one-hour weekly breakfast conference was facilitated by a senior surgical faculty member with the time protected from all clinical duties. Following a guided meditation, participants were given time for reflection and dialogue about their training experiences or led in a wellness exercise. TRANCE (tolerance, respect, anonymity, nonretaliation, compassion, egalitarianism) principles were utilized to create a safe and open environment. Residents were surveyed at the end of the study period, which was from March 2017 through June 2018. The conference and data analysis was conducted at Denver Health Medical Center, affiliated with the University of Colorado School of Medicine. This study analyzed survey responses from 85 surgical residents. Following the wellness program, when answering the 2-question Maslach Burnout Inventory, 35.7% of residents reported feeling burned out by their work once a week or more, and 29.7% reported feeling more callous toward people once a week or more. After multivariate analysis, the only independent predictors of increased burnout were "not being married or in a committed relationship," lower positive affect, and higher negative affect. Written feedback was overwhelmingly positive, and residents expressed gratitude for the conference, the opportunity for self-reflection, and open dialogue with attendings and colleagues. The prevalence of burnout is high among surgical residents. Allowing time to practice a mindfulness meditation while providing space for residents to share their experiences may be protective, and efforts should be made to reduce barriers to participation.
Comparable studies
Other cross-sectional and survey studies on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Construct Validity of the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire in Meditating and Nonmeditating Samples Experienced meditators and nonmeditating comparison groups | 2008 | Cross-sectional study | |
| Neural Correlates of Dispositional Mindfulness During Affect Labeling Adult participants | 2007 | Observational cross-sectional | n = 27 |
| Assessing mindfulness in children and adolescents: Development and validation of the Child and Adolescent Mindfulness Measure (CAMM). School-aged children and adolescents | 2011 | Cross-sectional validation study | n = 1,413 |
| Mindfulness and self-compassion as predictors of psychological wellbeing in long-term meditators and matched nonmeditators Experienced meditators and demographically matched nonmeditators | 2012 | Cross-sectional study | n = 152 |
| Mechanisms of Action in the Inverse Relationship Between Mindfulness and Psychological Distress Undergraduates | 2008 | Cross-sectional, correlational |