Resident Physician Stanford University School of Medicine Palo Alto, California, United States
Background: Patient deaths in the inpatient pediatric setting increase feelings of burnout, guilt, and self-doubt among resident physicians. Emotional debriefing following distressing events have been shown to help residents process death, strengthen team dynamics, and reduce risk of burnout. However, emotional debriefs do not regularly occur following distressing events and many fellow physicians have little training and experience leading debriefs. Objective: To understand the experiences of pediatric fellow physicians participating in and leading emotional debriefs following patient deaths. Design/Methods: This is an IRB-approved exploratory mixed-methods study of pediatric fellow physicians in the divisions of critical care, hematology/oncology, and neonatology at a quaternary care pediatric hospital. We collected survey data to assess frequency of emotional debriefs and prior training on this subject, then conducted individual semi-structured interviews with participants to understand attitudes and perceptions of emotional debriefing, including barriers and facilitators. Interviews were recorded and transcribed, and will be coded by two separate authors. Data analysis will be guided by Chen et al.’s conceptual framework of professional caregivers’ bereavement after patient deaths, modified grounded theory, and qualitative analysis for theoretical sufficiency.
