Abstract Details

To evaluate the impact of 12 interventions on resident well-being and identify the most effective interventions for anxiety, burnout, professional fulfillment, and peer engagement in a neurology training program during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Neurology residents in a US training program were surveyed 6 weeks after implementation of 12 unique interventions targeting COVID related hospital and educational changes to 1) measure current level of well-being using standardized measures of burnout, professional fulfillment, self-valuation, and peer engagement 2) measure effects of interventions on anxiety, burnout, professional fulfillment, and peer engagement and 3) identify the most effective interventions to support resident well-being.

May 2020 post-intervention survey response rate was 76%. The two most highly rated interventions for anxiety and burnout were providing individually packaged, easily accessible meals several times a week and a daily email consolidating updates, policies, and safety information into one resource. Interventions that were implemented to ensure clinical safety by limiting in-person interactions had positive benefits on anxiety and burnout, but negatively affected peer engagement and professional fulfillment. Transitioning to virtual didactics was the most detrimental to peer engagement. Increasing the number of didactics appeared to mitigate these negative effects by supplementing educational opportunities.

Residency-level interventions can have substantial positive impact on aspects of neurology resident well-being even during a pandemic. Food provision and open communication strategies had the largest benefits. Ensuring adequate educational opportunities was important to offset the loss of in-person learning necessitated by clinical safety measures. These results can guide other neurology residencies on prioritizing resources for the highest-yield well-being interventions.