Academic faculty demonstrate higher well-being than residents: Pennsylvania anesthesiology programs' results of the 2017-2018 ACGME well-being survey.

Authors

• Phillip S Adams
• Emily K B Gordon
• Abiona Berkeley
• Brian Monroe
• Jill M Eckert
• Yasdet Maldonado
• James W Heitz
• Shelley George
• David G Metro

Publication/Presentation Date

9-1-2019

Abstract

STUDY OBJECTIVE: Physician burnout and suicide are at epidemic proportions. There is very little data directly comparing resident versus faculty well-being. The 2017-2018 ACGME resident and faculty surveys mark the first time that well-being questions were included. The purpose of this study was to determine whether responses to ACGME well-being questions would differ significantly between anesthesiology residents and academic anesthesiology faculty.

DESIGN: 2017-2018 ACGME well-being survey responses.

SETTING: All eight Pennsylvania anesthesiology residency programs.

PATIENTS: None.

INTERVENTIONS: None.

MEASUREMENTS: The authors compared the 5-point Likert scale responses (1 = Never through 5 = Very Often) between residents (371/384 responses, 97%) and faculty (277/297 responses, 93%) for each of the twelve well-being questions. Responses were also dichotomized as being ≥4 versus < 4 for categorical comparisons.

MAIN RESULTS: Faculty responded higher than residents both by mean scores and percent of scores ≥ 4 for 6/12 questions (questions 1 (p <  0.001), 2 (p <  0.001), 4 (p <  0.001), 5 (p <  0.001), 8 (p <  0.001), and 11 (p = 0.001)). Residents responded categorically higher for question 9 (p = 0.022) although this was not considered statistically significant. Residents responded lowest for "Reflected on how your work helps make the world a better place" (question 1), whereas the lowest faculty responses were for questions 1, 9, and 10. Both had high responses for "Had an enjoyable interaction with a patient" (question 11).

CONCLUSIONS: Pennsylvania academic anesthesiology faculty survey responses demonstrated a higher level of well-being compared to their residents. The variation in scoring suggests that anesthesiology residents and faculty have differing perceptions of various well-being domains. Information from well-being surveys can help provide programs with focus areas that they can intervene on to improve physician well-being.

Volume

56

First Page

60

Last Page

64

ISSN

1873-4529

Published In/Presented At

Adams, P. S., Gordon, E. K. B., Berkeley, A., Monroe, B., Eckert, J. M., Maldonado, Y., Heitz, J. W., George, S., & Metro, D. G. (2019). Academic faculty demonstrate higher well-being than residents: Pennsylvania anesthesiology programs' results of the 2017-2018 ACGME well-being survey. Journal of clinical anesthesia, 56, 60–64. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinane.2019.01.037

Disciplines

Business Administration, Management, and Operations | Health and Medical Administration | Management Sciences and Quantitative Methods

PubMedID

30690316

Department(s)

Administration and Leadership

Document Type

Article