Wellness

The department strives to create an environment for our residents that are conducive to learning, intellectually stimulating, personally satisfying, and safe from physical and emotional harm. The resident’s well-being is imperative to our success as teachers and a residency as a whole. Resources are offered throughout residency to ensure our residents understand the safety concerns not only for the patients, but for the resident as well.

Policy Statement

In the current health care environment, residents, fellows and faculty members are at increased risk for burnout and depression. Psychological, emotional, and physical well-being are critical to the development and maintenance of the competent, caring, and resilient physician. Self-care is an important component of professionalism and high-quality patient care; it is also a skill that must be learned and nurtured in the context of other aspects of residency training. This policy outlines the responsibility of the Office of Graduate Medical Education and ARMC Programs to address trainee and faculty wellness.

GME Responsibilities

Assist program directors (PDs) in their initiatives to protect trainee time with patients, minimize non-physician obligations, provide administrative support to trainees, promote progressive
Provide PDs with resources to educate faculty and trainees about the symptoms of burnout, depression and substance use and their avoidance.
Identify resources for trainee burnout, depression and substance use.
Encourage trainees and faculty members to alert designated personnel when they are concerned about a community member who is displaying signs of burnout, depression, substance use, suicidal ideation or potential for violence, or who is not proactively engaging in self-care.
Provide access to confidential, affordable, mental health assessment including access to urgent and emergent care 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Provide a way for residents to report unprofessional behavior and a respectful process for reporting, investigating and addressing such concerns.

Program Responsibilities

Paying attention to trainee/faculty schedules to look at work intensity and compression factors.
Allowing trainees/faculty to attend medical, dental and mental health care appointments, including those scheduled during work hours.
Educating trainees and faculty about symptoms of burnout, depression and substance use, and their avoidance, including means to assist those experiencing such issues.
Educate trainees and faculty on how to seek appropriate care
Teaching and nurturing self- care practices, an important component of professionalism and high-quality patient care.
Providing a respectful, professional and civil environment that is free from mistreatment, abuse or coercion. Provide education about professional behavior and a confidential process for reporting concerns.
Encourage resident and faculty members to alert the program when they are concerned about themselves and/or the well-being of others.

Resident/Faculty Responsibilities

Learning self-care is an important component of professionalism and patient care, and trainees have a responsibility to themselves and to their patients and programs to ensure that they are fit for work through behaviors such as:

Proactive self-care, and modeling of healthy lifestyles and behaviors for patients, students, and colleagues.
Time management surrounding clinical assignments
Impairment recognition and notification, either from illness, fatigue and substance use in themselves, their peers and other members of the health care team
Lifelong learning
Performance improvement indicator monitoring
Reporting duty hours, patient outcomes and clinical experience (such as case logs)
Use self-assessment tools provided for personal use

Resources

Fatigue Mitigation Policy & Coverage of Patient Care Responsibilities Protocol

BACKGROUND

There may be circumstances in which residents may be unable to attend work including, but not limited to fatigue, illness, family emergencies and parental leave.
Our program will allow for an appropriate length of absence for residents unable to perform their patient care responsibilities.
The program will educate all faculty members and residents to recognize all signs of fatigue, fatigue mitigation processes and encourage residents to manage potential negative effects.

PROCEDURE

It is important for residents/fellows to have adequate rest before and after clinical responsibilities.

Strategies to be used for fatigue mitigation include:

Strategic napping
Judicious use of caffeine
Availability of other caregivers
Time management to maximize sleep off duty
Learning to recognize the signs of fatigue
Self-monitoring performance and/or asking others to monitor performance
Remaining active to promote alertness
Maintaining a healthy diet
Using relaxation techniques to fall asleep
Maintaining a consistent sleep routine
Exercising regularly
Increasing sleep time before and after call
Ensuring sufficient sleep recovery periods

When a resident/fellow identifies him/herself or peers or an attending identifies the resident/fellow as being too fatigued, there are several options for faculty/resident:

Call rooms/sleep quarters are available at all facilities for the faculty/resident to use for a nap until the resident/fellow is less fatigued.
Public or private transportation if available may be utilized.
Peers, attendings, family may be called to assist transporting fatigued faculty/resident to their residence.
Patient care responsibilities maybe transferred to another provider to ensure continuity of patient care. Attending in charge or the Program Director should be notified to arrange for the appropriate transfer of care.

When a resident/fellow identifies him/herself or peers or an attending identifies the resident/fellow as being too fatigued, there are several options for faculty/resident:

Call rooms/sleep quarters are available at all facilities for the faculty/resident to use for a nap until the resident/fellow is less fatigued.
Public or private transportation if available may be utilized.
Peers, attendings, family may be called to assist transporting fatigued faculty/resident to their residence.
Patient care responsibilities maybe transferred to another provider to ensure continuity of patient care. Attending in charge or the Program Director should be notified to arrange for the appropriate transfer of care.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTm8ry7nm3s