Resident Fuel Levels: Reframing, Assessing, and Addressing Well-Being
To optimize resident learning, programs need to readily assess resident well-being. There is a lack of easy-to-use, acceptable instruments for this task. We created a well-being "fuel gauge," and assessed the acceptability and feasibility of this weekly electronic communication pipeline fo...
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| Published in | Journal of graduate medical education Vol. 10; no. 2; pp. 198 - 202 |
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| Main Authors | , , |
| Format | Journal Article |
| Language | English |
| Published |
United States
The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education
01.04.2018
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| Subjects | |
| Online Access | Get full text |
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| Summary: | To optimize resident learning, programs need to readily assess resident well-being. There is a lack of easy-to-use, acceptable instruments for this task.
We created a well-being "fuel gauge," and assessed the acceptability and feasibility of this weekly electronic communication pipeline for residents to report and discuss their well-being.
A well-being fuel gauge assessment was administered weekly over the course of 1 academic year (July 2016 to June 2017) in a large internal medicine residency program. The well-being gauge asked residents to report their fuel levels using a 1 to 5 Likert-type scale (1,
; 3,
; and 5,
). Residents who provided low scores (1 or 2) were contacted by program leadership, and the program director sent weekly e-mail updates that addressed residents' comments on their well-being fuel gauge.
Of 163 residents, 149 (91%) provided data on their well-being fuel gauge, with a 53% average weekly response rate. Fifty-four percent of residents (80 of 149) reported a low score over the course of the year, and 4 residents only used the assessment to report a low score. Comments on average consisted of 280 characters (SD = 357) and were lengthier and more prevalent with lower fuel gauge scores. We analyzed the relationship between scores and comments.
The well-being fuel gauge was well accepted by most residents and was easy to administer and to oversee by program directors. It facilitated ongoing monitoring of well-being and follow-up to address factors contributing to low well-being. |
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| Bibliography: | This research was presented in part at the Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine's Academic Internal Medicine Week, Baltimore, Maryland, March 19–22, 2017, and at the Innovations in Medical Education Conference, Los Angeles, California, February 23–24, 2018. All authors are with the University of Texas Southwestern. Shannon Amerilda Scielzo, PhD, MS, is Associate Director of Education, Department of Internal Medicine/Graduate Medical Education; David C. Weigle, PhD, MPH, is Assistant Dean for Graduate Medical Education and Designated Institutional Official; and Salahuddin (Dino) Kazi, MD, is Vice Chair of Education, Director of Residency Training, Department of Internal Medicine, and Professor of Medicine, Division of Rheumatic Diseases. Editor's Note: The online version of this article contains more detail regarding implementation processes, a step-by-step guide, and a workflow diagram. Funding: This research was funded by the Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine Innovation grant program and by a grant from the Southwestern Academy of Teachers. Conflict of interest: The authors declare they have no competing interests. |
| ISSN: | 1949-8349 1949-8357 |
| DOI: | 10.4300/JGME-D-17-00536.1 |