Dataset Information

Transdisciplinary Strategies for Physician Wellness: Qualitative Insights from Diverse Fields.

ABSTRACT:

Background

While barriers to physician wellness have been well detailed, concrete solutions are lacking.

Objective

We looked to professionals across diverse fields whose work requires engagement and interpersonal connection with clients. The goal was to identify effective strategies from non-medical fields that could be applied to preserve physician wellness.

Design

We conducted semi-structured interviews with 30 professionals outside the field of clinical medicine whose work involves fostering effective connections with individuals.

Participants

Professionals from diverse professions, including the protective services (e.g., police officer, firefighter), business/finance (e.g., restaurateur, salesperson), management (e.g., CEO, school principal), education, art/design/entertainment (e.g., professional musician, documentary filmmaker), community/social services (e.g., social worker, chaplain), and personal care/services (e.g., massage therapist, yoga instructor).

Approach

Interviews covered strategies that professionals use to initiate and maintain relationships, practices that cultivate professional fulfillment and preserve wellness, and techniques that facilitate emotional presence during interactions. Data were coded using an inductive thematic analysis approach.

Key results

Professionals identified self-care strategies at both institutional and individual levels that support wellness. Institutional-level strategies include scheduling that allows for self-care, protected time to connect with colleagues, and leadership support for debriefing after traumatic events. Individual strategies include emotionally protective distancing techniques and engagement in a bidirectional exchange that is central to interpersonal connection and professional fulfillment.

Limitations

In this exploratory study, the purposive sampling technique and single representative per occupation could limit the generalizability of findings.

Conclusion

Across diverse fields, professionals employ common institutional and personal wellness strategies that facilitate meaningful engagement, support collegiality, and encourage processing after intense events. The transdisciplinary nature of these wellness strategies highlights universal underpinnings that support wellbeing in those engaging in people-oriented professions.

SUBMITTER: Schwartz R

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6614234 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Transdisciplinary Strategies for Physician Wellness: Qualitative Insights from Diverse Fields.

Schwartz Rachel R Haverfield Marie C MC Brown-Johnson Cati C Maitra Amrapali A Tierney Aaron A Bharadwaj Shreyas S Shaw Jonathan G JG Azimpour Farzad F Thadaney Israni Sonoo S Verghese Abraham A Zulman Donna M DM

Journal of general internal medicine 20190429 7

<h4>Background</h4>While barriers to physician wellness have been well detailed, concrete solutions are lacking.<h4>Objective</h4>We looked to professionals across diverse fields whose work requires engagement and interpersonal connection with clients. The goal was to identify effective strategies from non-medical fields that could be applied to preserve physician wellness.<h4>Design</h4>We conducted semi-structured interviews with 30 professionals outside the field of clinical medicine whose wo ...[more]

PMID: 31037542

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Project description:BACKGROUND:The prevalence and detrimental effect of physician burnout requires new strategies for supporting physicians. In this project, we describe the development, and assessment, of a "Balint-like" physician support group that provided social cohesion and delivered novel didactic curricula for building resilience. METHODS:The project began with a nine-month facilitated peer-support group for physicians that met every other week. Based on input from the first group, tailored content was developed to address physician wellness needs. These curricula were delivered to participants in the second nine-month Balint-like group. We then conducted semi-structured interviews with 7 hospitalists and 2 outpatient primary care physicians who participated in the Balint-like groups to explore the intervention's value and to identify remaining unmet physician wellness needs. Using an inductive thematic analysis approach, we identified a set of institutional-, community- and individual-level factors affecting physician wellness and corresponding intervention opportunities. RESULTS:Physicians spoke of systems-level factors that contributed to distress, and proposed infrastructure, both physical and procedural, that they felt could better support physician wellness. They highlighted the emotional challenges of daily work, and the need for a forum by which to process these interactions in order to maintain their own wellness. Participants reported that participation in Balint-like groups provided this forum and served to help the physicians normalize struggles, reduce isolation and provide new strategies for navigating challenging interactions. CONCLUSIONS:Institutional infrastructure, in the form of regular, psychologically-safe forums for processing with peers and learning relational strategies for preserving wellness, may mitigate physician distress. This project provides a model for how to develop and deliver a low-cost physician wellness program that can be tailored to the needs of individual clinical units.

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Dataset Information

Transdisciplinary Strategies for Physician Wellness: Qualitative Insights from Diverse Fields.

Background

Objective

Design

Participants

Approach

Key results

Limitations

Conclusion

Publications

Transdisciplinary Strategies for Physician Wellness: Qualitative Insights from Diverse Fields.

Similar Datasets

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