An internal medicine residency's response to the COVID-19 crisis: caring for our residents while caring for our patients. Issue 6 (1st November 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Detterline, Stephanie; Hartman-Hall, Heather; Garbow, Katherine; Rawal, Himanshu; Blackwood, David; Nizialek, Gregory; Nashaat, Zayd
• Is Part Of: Journal of community hospital internal medicine perspectives. Volume 10:Issue 6(2020)
• Page Start: 504
• Page End: 507
• Publication Date: 2020-11-01
• Subjects: COVID-19 -- pandemic -- well-being -- crisis response -- resident stress -- burnout prevention; Internal medicine -- Periodicals; Hospitals -- Periodicals; Hospitals, Community; Internal Medicine; Hospitals; Internal medicine; Periodicals; Periodicals; 610
• DOI: 10.1080/20009666.2020.1807218
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2000-9666

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Background: In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, internal medicine residencies have had to develop new teaching strategies and attend to wellness concerns. Providing front-line care for patients in a time of widespread crisis while maintaining attention to training has created unprecedented challenges. Objective: Our large community hospital based internal medicine residency sought to develop and evaluate a crisis response to the demands of the COVID-19 pandemic to meet our residents' educational and wellness needs. Methods: In March 2020, our residency developed a crisis plan for functioning during the COVID-19 pandemic. A brief survey was sent via email to our 149 residents to obtain their evaluation of how well their needs were being met by this response. Results: 92 (62%) residents completed the survey. 88% indicated their well-being needs were well met. Other components were also rated as successful: effective communication (86%), scheduling/staffing (78%), preparing residents for clinical service (77%), and educational needs (76%). Conclusions: Our residency crisis response to the COVID-19 pandemic was favorably evaluated by our residents in meeting their training and well-being needs. In future work we plan to seek longer-term and more objective measures to assess how residents fare during these challenging times, and to use lessons learned to prepare for future crisis situations.