Twenty-first International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

Medical residents commonly suffer from burnout, which adversely affects patient care and their own well-being. Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS), a humanities-based approach, can help reduce stress and anxiety with some evidence suggesting that it may help reduce burnout rates in health professionals. However, there is limited research on VTS’s impact specifically on medical resident well-being. We conducted a study with 55 internal medicine residents. Demographic data, prior humanities and clinical exposure, and a pre-session WHO-5 wellness questionnaire was collected. The intervention group participated in a one-hour VTS session at an art museum while a control group participated in a campus tour. All residents completed a post-session WHO-5 questionnaire. The mean pre-experiment WHO-5 well-being index were 52.29 (+/-10.72) and 51.11 (+/-14.05) for the experiment and control groups respectively. The mean post-WHO-5 index were 72.43 (+/-13.83) and 65.63 (+/-20.46) for the experiment and control groups respectively. There was no significant difference on the pre-experiment WHO-5 well-being index between the two groups (p=0.728). However, the mean post-experiment WHO-5 well-being index was significantly higher than that of the control group when the pre-experiment WHO-5 well-being index was used as a covariance (p<-0.01). We found a significant increase in the interventional group’s wellbeing compared to the control group, as measured by the WHO-5 scale, with just one session of VTS. Further research is needed to confirm the efficacy and explore the effect of further dosing of this potentially simple intervention to improve resident well-being

Presenters

Julia See
Student, MD Candidate, University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine, United States

Chi Zhang
University of Miami

Gauri Agarwal
Associate Dean for Curriculum, Medicine and Medical Education, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Florida, United States