Project Manager Nationwide Children's Hospital WESTERVILLE, Ohio, United States
Background: Physicians, trainees and frontline healthcare professionals (HCPs) experience high rates of stress and burnout which can negatively impact well-being and patient care. Individual resilience is thought to help mitigate the negative effects of stress. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between resilience with burnout, gratitude, stress and mental health in a sample of pediatric faculty, trainees and other HCPs who were enrolled in a well-being program called STREAM (Sustaining and Training for Resilience Engagement and Meaning). Objective: The purpose of this study was to prospectively examine the relationships between resilience with burnout, gratitude, stress and mental health. Design/Methods: Physicians, fellows and residents from five pediatric academic institutions who were participating in the STREAM well-being program completed baseline personal surveys. Participants completed demographic questions (role, gender, race) as well as the work-gratitude scale, a resilience scale including emotional thriving and emotional recovery subscales, the patient health questionnaire-4, the brief stress scale and a validated two item burnout assessment. Results: The 315 participants included attending physicians (n=119), fellows (n=35), residents (n=113) and other front line health care professionals (n=87). The majority were female (72.4%) and white 87.4(%). Participants from backgrounds underrepresented in medicine had lower overall resilience and gratitude scores (p=0.002 and p< 0.001, respectively). Residents also reported significantly lower resilience scores compared to faculty and fellows (p=0.001). In the overall group, total resilience was significantly associated with gratitude (r=.43, p< 0.001) and stress (r=.27, p< 0.001) but not anxiety and depression symptoms (p=0.17) or burnout (p=0.07).
Conclusion(s): Gratitude was significantly associated with resilience. Other researchers have posited that gratitude strengthens resilience through development and refinement of positive coping strategies. Surprisingly, in this cohort those with higher resilience also reported higher stress levels. Resilience is thought to be protective of stress in many settings, and longitudinal research is needed to determine if further development of gratitude is protective for development of burnout and desire to leave the profession.
