In case you missed last week’s Webcast Audio Seminar (WAS) Session, here are the highlights of this session:

Improving Medical Student Mental Health: A Multi-faceted Approach
Stuart Slavin MD, MEd
Saint Louis University (SLU) School of Medicine

Summary:

• Statistical indicators for moderate to severe depression and anxiety rates across the spectrum of physician training (medical students, residents, physicians) are alarmingly high.
• Investing in well-being improves cognitive functioning.
• Rather than mistreatment, medical students are mostly demoralized by working with unhappy residents, unhappy faculty and the subjectivity and perceived unfairness of grading.
• It is imperative to improve the clinical learning environment and enhance the well-being of the residents and faculty who train medical students.
• Making improvements across the clinical learning environment includes a focus on: workload, control, rewards, community, fairness and values.
• The SLU Mental Health Initiative, which began in 2009 sought to develop a new model for mental healthcare for medical students that is not limited to the preclinical years. This model is designed to decrease the unnecessary stressors in the learning environment, create opportunities for students to find and sustain meaning in their work and increase students’ ability to deal with stress.
• Curricular interventions were designed to cultivate mindfulness, metacognition and resilience without a huge investment of time. Key constructs of resilience include: cognitive restructuring (maladaptive perfectionism, imposter syndrome, cognitive distortions) negativity bias, optimistic vs. pessimistic explanatory styles, positive emotions and emotional self-regulation.
• Current data from the SLU Mental Health Initiative indicate reduced levels of depression and anxiety for first and second year medical students.
• Lessons learned: more is not necessarily better and overloading students has a negative impact on their mental health, an emotional reaction can modify the outcome of an adverse event, toxic learning environments override resilience, the origins of mental health are multi-factorial and synergistic; changing one variable is not sufficient.
• For further details about the SLU Mental Health Initiative, contact Dr. Stuart Slavin slavinsj@slu.edu.

In case you missed yesterday’s Webcast Audio Seminar (WAS) Session, here are the highlights of this session:

Physician Burnout and Distress – Causes, Consequences, and a Structure for Solutions
Presenter: Colin P. West, MD, PhD
Mayo Clinic

Summary:

• Physician burnout is a public health crisis that negatively impacts patient safety as well as individual and organizational performance.
• Physician burnout affects all stages of physician training and all specialties.
• Physician burnout is a compendium of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and low personal accomplishment.
• Physician burnout is characterized by the following key drivers: maladaptive physician behaviors, excessive workload, inefficient working environment, difficulty attaining work/life balance, loss of autonomy/control, and diminished meaning in working. These key drivers form a framework for discussing and conducting studies on how to tackle physician burnout.
• Designated resources are necessary to effectively deal with physician burnout.
• Both individual and structural (organizational) interventions are necessary to appropriately address physician burnout issues.
• Burnout assessment can be used as a metric for institutional performance.
• The Oldenburg and Maslach Burnout Inventories are tools for assessing individual burnout.
• The Mayo Clinic conducted a pilot study wherein physicians were granted a small amount of protected time to meet in small groups during lunch (which was paid for) over the course of six months. Results were positive and facilitated the establishment of COMPAS groups. For further information (west.colin@mayo.edu).
• Physicians and stakeholders need to be engaged in creative problem solving to strategize burnout prevention and solutions.

Cultivating Resilience and Reducing Burnout for Health Professionals: The Power of Presence, Reflective Practice and Appreciative Dialogue
Presenter: Michael Krasner, MD
February 2, 12 PM ET

During this session, Dr. Krasner will explore the issue of burnout, and its effects on quality of care and quality of caring in the medical encounter. After defining resilience, he will then examine ways to cultivate resilience in health professional development. Particular focus will be given to Mindful Practice, an approach designed cultivate resilience through the cultivation of mindful attention and awareness, reflections and sharing among physicians and other health professionals of clinical narratives, and the use of appreciative dialogue in identifying the strengths and capacities that lead to greater meaning, satisfaction and resilience in medical practice.

For more information and to register for the Winter 2017 Audio Seminar Series, please click here.

The Imperative for Incorporating Mind-Body Medicine in Health Professions Education
Presenter: Adi Haramati, PhD
January 26, 12 PM ET

More than half of practicing physicians exhibit characteristics of chronic stress and burnout. This trend may begin earlier with the observed decline in empathy during medical student training and alarming rates of burnout in medical and other students in the health professions. In this presentation, Dr. Haramati will review published outcomes on curricular interventions to help students and faculty manage stress, foster empathy and build resilience. He will also share his perspective on why it is essential to incorporate mind-body techniques into the training curriculum for all health professionals – something that will require both skill and courage.

For more information and to register for the Winter 2017 Audio Seminar Series, please click here.

Strategies for promoting personal health & wellness and leading change at the individual level
Presenter: Catherine Pipas, MD, MPH
January 19, 12 PM ET

Leaders in Academic Medical Centers face a need for robust change in healthcare. They are faced with diminished resources, expanded expectations and are called upon daily to lead change and achieve the “Triple Aim” of better health, better care and lower costs. Leaders of change also face increased stress and burnout. Thomas Bodenheimer’s, “Quadruple Aim” challenges leaders to prioritize their own health in order to effectively promote the health of others. By applying the continuous quality improvement (CQI) process at the personal level, leaders can demonstrate the knowledge and skills to lead change while simultaneously promoting personal improvement.

This session will focus on describing strategies for leading change at the personal level. Participants will have an opportunity to reflect on the components of the process of change, their own resilience, personal vision and to strengthen their commitment to personal health choices. They will critically analyze and prioritize areas for personal improvement and define global aims, SMART objectives, actionable steps, timelines, challenges and resources for sustainability. The process begins with a personal needs assessment and ends with an actionable personal improvement plan. Participants will be supported to implement their personal plans and to partner and disseminate tools with team members and colleagues at their home institution.

At the conclusion of this seminar, the participant will be able to:

• Describe the importance of achieving “The Quadruple Aim”
  
• Discuss Strategies for Leading Change Personally and at the Team level
  
• Adapt the model for systems improvement as a framework from which to apply personal health improvement

For more information and to register for the Winter 2017 Audio Seminar Series, please click here.

IAMSE is pleased to announce the Spring 2017 Web Seminar Series!

Remediation in Health Science Education

As a follow-up to the IAMSE fall 2016 web seminar series on assessment, the spring 2017 IAMSE web seminar series will continue with exciting, informative sessions focusing on remediation. The goal of remediation is to correct the course of students who have gone astray in their journey to become a health professional. However, because of the varying components in a professional health science curriculum including basic science knowledge, clinical skills, and professionalism coupled with ever changing curricular modifications; effective remediation in health science education has become a complex issue with many challenges. To explore some of these issues, the spring web seminar series will provide a series of presentations by speakers who will share their experiences and expertise in remediation. The fundamental groundwork for the understanding of the importance of successful remediation will be laid and examples of programs who have applied these principles to integrated basic science courses and clinical skills will be provided. A timely presentation on the approaches to remediation of the new paradigm in undergraduate medical education assessment: Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) will be included. Licensing exam failures are a major concern in health professions education and one session will be dedicated to a panel presentation of identification of students in jeopardy of not passing and/or remediation of these exams from the perspectives of allopathic (USMLE Step-1), osteopathic (COMLEX), and physician assistant (PANCE) medical programs. The series will also contain a session on the many issues (philosophical, educational, and legal) of “forward-feeding” assessment information on learners to faculty in subsequent courses. The audience will be invited to contribute to the series by sharing their experiences and insights using the phone line or our newly implemented backchannel communication.

March 2 – Remediation of Basic Science in Integrated Blocks – Presented by Giulia Bonaminio and Jeannette Guerrasio

March 9 – Remediation of “High Stakes” Professional Exams (USMLE Step-1, COMPLEX, PANCE) – Presented by Aubrey Knight, Nicole Wadsworth, and Pat Kenney-Moore

March 16 – Remediation of EPAs and “Trust Decisions” – Presented by Bryan Martin

March 23 – “Forward Feeding of Assessment Information” Should We Do It? – Presented by Lynn Cleary

March 30 – Remediation of Clinical Skills – Presented by Cate nicholas and Cami Curren

Registration is set to open in January. Please visit www.iamse.org for more information.

Improving Medical Student Mental Health: A Multifaceted Approach
Presented by Stuart Slavin, MD, MEd
January 12, 12 PM ET

Dr. Slavin will provide an overview of a multi-faceted initiative at Saint Louis University School of Medicine that is designed to enhance the mental health of pre-clinical medical students. He will describe the various components of the initiative, the mental health outcomes for students, and the resilience and mindfulness curriculum that is taught to the students.

For more information and to register for the Winter 2017 Audio Seminar Series, please click here.

Physician burnout and distress – causes, consequences, and a structure for solutions
Presenter: Colin West, MD, PhD
January 5, 12 PM ET

This session will briefly review data on physician burnout and dissatisfaction before considering current knowledge of the contributors to and consequences of physician burnout and distress. We will then discuss evidence in support of both individual-focused and organizational solutions, and how these may be aligned with the known drivers of burnout and distress to optimize benefits.

For more information and to register for the Winter 2017 Audio Seminar Series, please click here.