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SMART-R: A Prospective Cohort Study of a Resilience Curriculum for Residents by Residents

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Abstract

Objective

This study aimed to determine the feasibility of a resident-led resiliency curriculum developed by residents, for residents.

Methods

The Stress Management and Resiliency Training Program for Residents (SMART-R) is a 6-h group-based curriculum that teaches meditation, behavioral skills, and positive perspective-taking strategies. SMART-R was implemented for all medicine and psychiatry interns at a large US teaching hospital during the first 6 months of internship. Risk and resilience factors for burnout were assessed before and after the curriculum. A wearable health-tracking device was used to assess feasibility of wearables for studying resident health behaviors.

Results

All 73 medicine and 17 psychiatry interns participated in the SMART-R curriculum. Seventy-five of 85 interns (88%) consented to be in the study. Thirty-one of 75 (41%) completed both baseline and post surveys of risk and resilience factors for burnout. Preliminary curriculum feedback was enthusiastic. Twenty-five of 62 (40%) wore the health tracker more than half the time in the first 3 months of the study.

Conclusions

Implementation of a resident-led resiliency curriculum for internal medicine and psychiatry interns at an academic medical center during the most challenging first months of internship is feasible. Future controlled studies are needed to determine efficacy of SMART-R on risk and resilience factors. Over the first 6 months of internship, we observed an expected increase in burnout, fatigue, and depression, though other key risk and resilience factors were unchanged.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Dr. Hasan Bazari and Dr. Felicia Smith for their support of this research within the residency training programs in the departments of Medicine and Psychiatry, respectively, at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Funding

This pilot project was supported by an APIRE Janssen Resident Award (award recipient is corresponding author). Basis Inc. provided health-tracking devices for this investigator-initiated study.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Deanna Chaukos

  2. Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA

    Emma Chad-Friedman, Darshan H. Mehta, Thomas H. McCoy Jr & John W. Denninger

  3. University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Laura Byerly

  4. University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA, USA

    Alper Celik

Authors
  1. Deanna Chaukos
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  2. Emma Chad-Friedman
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  3. Darshan H. Mehta
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  4. Laura Byerly
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  5. Alper Celik
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  6. Thomas H. McCoy Jr
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  7. John W. Denninger
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Deanna Chaukos.

Ethics declarations

This study was approved by the Partners HealthCare Human Research Committee/IRB review. All participants signed written, informed consent.

Disclosures

Dr. Denninger receives support for unrelated investigator-initiated studies from Onyx Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Denninger receives support from Basis Inc. for materials related to investigator-initiated studies. This does not alter the author’s adherence to Academic Psychiatry policies on sharing data and materials. On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.

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Chaukos, D., Chad-Friedman, E., Mehta, D.H. et al. SMART-R: A Prospective Cohort Study of a Resilience Curriculum for Residents by Residents. Acad Psychiatry 42, 78–83 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40596-017-0808-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40596-017-0808-z

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