Measuring wellness among resident physicians

Abstract

Requirements to include professionalism in residency curricula have generated a substantial body of literature concerning the environments that fail to nurture professionalism. Local and national surveys provide evidence that a high prevalence of depersonalization and emotional exhaustion exists among residents and that clinical practice is impaired as a result of these factors. A group of 34 residents from ten residency programmes participated in the psychometric testing of a resident wellness assessment instrument that can be rapidly administered, scored, and interpreted. The Brief Resident Wellness Profile is composed of a Mood faces graphical rating item and a six-question subscale. The six-item subscale had good reliability (alpha = 0.83; r = 0.84), convergent validity (r = 0.63), discriminant validity (r = −0.37), and concurrent validity ( p = 0.007). The Mood faces item had good convergent validity (r = 0.66), discriminant validity (r = −0.71), and concurrent validity ( p = 0.008). The Brief Resident Wellness Profile appears to be a reliable and valid instrument that measures residents’ sense of professional accomplishment and mood and can be rapidly administered, scored, and interpreted.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Samuel M. Keim

SAMUEL M. KEIM, MD, is an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine and the Director of the Emergency Medicine Residency program. His research interests are in medical education, evidence based medicine, wellness, and heat-related illnesses.

Mary Z. Mays

MARY Z. MAYS, PhD, is a Research Associate Professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine. She has broad experience in basic and applied behavioural and biomedical research both as an investigator and as a biostatistician.

Jean M. Williams

JEAN M. WILLIAMS, PhD, is Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychology. Her research interest has focused on the areas of psychology of injury, psychology of excellence, group dynamics and productivity, and exercise and mental health.

Joyce Serido

JOYCE SERIDO, PhD, is a post-doctoral fellow at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. Her research interests have focused on the effects of stress and decisions on careers, family relationships and personal well-being.

Robin B. Harris

ROBIN B. HARRIS, PhD MPH is Director of the Division of Epidemiology in the Mel and Enid Zimmerman College of Public Health. Her broad research interests have recently focused on cancer prevention, health care delivery and public health education.