Abstract
PurposeThe cumulative impact of managing patients' suffering and death contributes to psychologic stress and emotional exhaustion for physicians. There is a paucity of information on surgical training program resources available to prepare residents for managing, processing, and coping with traumatic work incidents.MethodsA comprehensive list of grief, support, and crisis resources was generated through a focus group of stakeholders. A 16-question mixed-methods survey investigated the frequency of traumatic events at an institution, the effects on residents in the training program, and the presence and importance of specific resources. The survey was piloted, revised, and disseminated to surgical program directors and leadership team members.ResultsResponse rate was 42% (81/191); 57 programs (70%) were university-affiliated and 32 states were represented. Over half of programs (56%) estimate residents experience patient mortality on a weekly basis and at least one resident sought treatment for acute stress disorder and/or post-traumatic stress disorder after work-related trauma at 22 programs (27%). Twenty programs (25%) do not report any formalized sessions on coping with trauma. The most frequent resources offered were a psychologist/psychiatrist through GME (80%) and a peer facilitator program (75%). Open-ended questions on barriers to providing resources yielded qualitative themes of lack of support, low priority, and unorganized approaches.ConclusionsThere is a wide range of frequency and type of resources available to cope with work-related trauma across general surgery residencies in the US. Future work may focus on resident experience with utilizing these resources to evaluate if more standardized curricula, recommendations, and support at a national level are warranted.