RESPITE: Resilience in the Era of Sustainable Physicians: an International Training Endeavour
Journal Articles
Overview
Overview
abstract
Residency programs that create a culture of resilience and wellness/wellbeing are likely to produce graduates who are well prepared for the era of sustainable medicine. The RESPITE initiative is an international, multisite, e-teaching endeavour currently offering an optional resilience curriculum. The online training program is available during each year of residency training to all physicians in training (residents and fellows). The curriculum includes the online module, reading material, and a post-module survey. During the academic year, the module will be presented to all training levels as a continuum of the objectives.
This curriculum of resilience has been designed for physicians training in various medical specialties and has been put together by resident physicians, medical students, and academic healthcare professionals located at several medical schools across North America, including McMaster University, University of California, Davis, Dalhousie University, and Texas A&M University. The focus of this e-teaching activity is on the efficacy of an instructional approach to stimulate physician trainees’ acquisition, retention, and application of content knowledge on resilience in their evolving roles as physicians.
For the tech-savvy generation entering the workplace, the question regarding “what is the best modality to reach out to our trainees” was asked. By circumventing scheduling class time conflicts and promoting personalized learning, we aim to teach about the importance of maintaining and enhancing wellness, how to reduce resident physicians’ stress and how to learn at their own speed.
We need sustainable, cost effective models of healthcare that accomplish sufficiently with respect to resources. We need the most modern physicians to work in this model. Therefore, we need to make them resilient physicians so that they will sustain their skills in a model of sustenance.
The curriculum has focused on two sections: Know Yourself and Integrate New Lifestyles (see the objectives below). The sections are delivered online during dedicated optional teaching time, and combine lectures, reflection, and simulated skill building exercises. Participants can assess their knowledge after the curriculum module using the summary of key points presented during the module as a framework. One of the goals is to show that the use of post-session questionnaires fosters participants’ comfort in talking about stress and burnout and that they can learn new ways to approach challenges and build resilience.
