A Supportive Culture Maintains General Surgery Wellness

Abstract

Social restrictions during the pandemic required creative solutions for incorporating interns into a demanding residency, building relationships, and fostering resiliency. We hypothesized that resident-driven initiatives focused on inclusion would overcome a lack of in-person events. An anonymous survey was administered to all surgery residents to assess burnout pre- and post-wellness interventions. Assessment scores were analyzed with Mann-U Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests. The surveys were completed by 71.6% (n = 53) and 48.6% (n = 36) of residents, respectively, and demonstrated high metrics for wellness measures. There were no significant differences on the 6-month post-assessment, suggesting interventions preserved high ratings. The PGY1 subgroup demonstrated improvement in the ability to identify a faculty mentor ( P < .01) and had reduced burnout measures ( P < .05). Surgical resident wellness is not dependent on department-wide gatherings; rather, resident-driven interventions in the workspace and intimate social support demonstrated an impact on wellness and reduced burnout.