Background: Residents’ well-being tends to decline in the course of training, yet research on preventive and restorative interventions for residents is limited. Mindfulness-based interventions have been successfully employed to support well-being in practicing physicians, but their impacts on residents are not well established.
Objective: This paper describes the structure, content, and evaluation of a pilot mindfulness-based intervention program designated PRACTICE (presence, resilience and compassion training in clinical education) that was designed specifically to support resident well-being.
Methods: A combined sample of 14 postgraduate year one residents from two residency training programs participated in a four-session (8 h) mindfulness-based intervention in the Fall/Winter of 2018. Participants were surveyed before, after, and at 3 months postintervention, on measures of wellness (Professional Fulfillment Index) and mental health (Patient Health Questionnaire-4), along with measures of program engagement.
Results: Participants demonstrated a significant reduction in burnout at the conclusion of the program. Depression and anxiety screening scores also trended toward improvement. However, participants were not able to sustain these gains. Three months after the conclusion of the program wellness measures had returned to preintervention levels.
Conclusions: The results of this study support the use of mindfulness-based interventions in resident wellness programs. The lack of an enduring effect indicates the need for a maintenance phase intervention.
Keywords: burnout; internship and residency; mindfulness; resiliency.