BACKGROUND:Humanism is a central tenant of professionalism, a required competency for all residency programs. Yet, few residencies have formal curriculum for teaching this critical aspect of medicine. Instead, professionalism and humanism are often taught informally through role-modeling. With increased burnout, faculty professionalism may suffer and may compromise resident role-modeling. The objective of this study was to design a pilot curriculum to foster humanism in among residents and assess its ability to do so.MATERIALS AND METHODS:Two-phase exploratory sequential mixed methods study. Phase 1: a qualitative analysis of residents’ narratives regarding challenges to humanistic behavior, and identified themes of compassion, fatigue, communication challenges, and work-life balance. Themes used as needs assessment to build curriculum. Phase 2: three sessions with themes taken from faculty development course. Participants and controls completed baseline and 60-day follow-up questionnaires assessing burnout, compassion, satisfaction, and ability to practice psychological medicine. Phase one included Obstetrics/Gynecology and internal medicine residents. Phase two included residents from the above programs, who attended at least 2/3 interactive sessions designed to address the themes identified above.RESULTS:Twelve participants began and ten completed curriculum (83%). The curriculum met course objectives and was well-received (4.8/5). Burnout decreased (−3.1 vs. 2.5, P = 0.048). A trend toward improved compassion (4.4 vs.−0.6, P = 0.096) for participants compared to controls was noted.CONCLUSION:A pilot humanism curriculum for residents was well-received. Participants showed decreased burnout and trended to improved compassion scores. Development and evaluation of an expanded curriculum would further explore feasibility and effectiveness of the intervention.

Objective Compare incidence of opioid-managed pelvic pain within 12-months after hysteroscopic and laparoscopic sterilization. Methods Using administrative claims, we identified women age 18-49 without recent history of childbirth who underwent hysteroscopic or laparoscopic sterilization between 2005-2012. We defined the outcome as ≥2 diagnoses for pelvic pain and ≥2 prescription fills for opioids. We calculated adjusted hazard ratios (HR) using Cox models and propensity score methods (matching and inverse-probability-of-treatment-weighting [IPTW]). Results We identified 71,875 eligible women (hysteroscopic n=26,927 [37.5%], laparoscopic n=44,948 [62.5%]). Of those, 236 (0.88%) hysteroscopic patients and 420 (0.93%) laparoscopic patients experienced the outcome (crude HR=0.97, [95%CI: 0.83, 1.14]). Adjusted analyses also yielded near-null results (matched HR=1.08 [95%CI: 0.90, 1.31]; IPTW HR=0.97 [95%CI: 0.80, 1.18]). While most sensitivity analyses generated results close to the null, hazard ratios estimated using propensity score matching ranged from 0.65 to 1.53. Conclusions Among women without recent history of childbirth, we did not find compelling evidence of a clinically meaningful increase in the incidence of pelvic pain requiring opioids during the year after hysteroscopic sterilization. However, effects observed in sensitivity analyses may merit further investigation.

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Prepubertal vaginal bleeding has many causes and requires a thorough targeted history and pediatric genitourinary examination, requiring knowledge of the variants of normal pediatric genitourinary anatomy. Most causes can be easily treated and are less likely to be due to sexual abuse or malignancy.

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