Prior Funding

Job burnout among internal medicine (IM) residents is quite common and has been associated with a number of negative consequences, such as depression, medical errors and sub-optimal patient care. Burnout in this population is likely due to a combination of factors, including excessive work hours, loan debt, fatigue and lack of emotional support. There are very few studies which have examined the impact of specific interventions designed to mitigate job burnout that residents face during training. Given the correlation between a supportive work environment and decreased burnout, and the observation that facilitated small group discussions may reduce the development of job burnout, the aim of our study is measure the impact of a support group intervention designed to decrease the development of job burnout and its associated negative outcomes in internal medicine residents. Participating residents will meet twice monthly for 9 months with experts in group discussion. Residents will be surveyed before and after to measure the program's impact. If successful, we hope to reproduce the intervention on a multi-center scale.