A Workshop to Reflect on Personal Resilience in Emergency Medicine Residents: Applying the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, Visual Explorer, and the Critical Incident Questionnaire to Support Introspection

Abstract

Burnout among emergency medicine (EM) residents is gaining increasing attention. The authors designed a workshop to assess EM residents' resilience using a validated scale to prompt personal reflection. The workshop then shifted to peer-to-peer conversations and sharing using images from Visual Explorer (VE) to further reflect on resilience. Overall, resident resilience scores were below those of the US general population, with postgraduate year (PGY)-2 year residents having the lowest scores. The workshop was well received by residents; data from the Critical Incident Questionnaire (CIQ) suggested that residents felt engaged during discussion of the images. Further study is needed to assess the correlation between resilience scores and burnout.

The effectiveness of emotion-focused art therapy on the resilience and self-image of emergency physicians

“…A US study using Explorer for emergency medicine residents reported an average CD-RISC score of 76.5, which is lower than the average scores of healthy adults in the US. [17] While the CD-RISC scores of the general Korean population are lower than those of the general US population owing to cultural differences, the average post-EFAT score in this study was higher than that of the general Korean population. In addition, given that our study and Kim et al's [27] study were conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, whereas the aforementioned studies were conducted before the pandemic, it is necessary to follow up on the resilience levels of EPs after the pandemic ends.…”

“…Furthermore, residents' wellbeing and their relationships with colleagues showed improvements. [16] In O'Connell et al [17] assessment of a resilience workshop that facilitated reflection, collaboration, and communication among emergency medicine residents, participants reported satisfaction with sharing their experiences of feeling resilient with their peers.…”

“The Story I Will Never Forget”

“…10,11 The relationship between critical incidents and burnout has been studied among various health professions and has been evaluated in a broad set of specialties such as anesthesia, emergency medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, and pediatric hematology/oncology. [12][13][14][15][16][17] However, to our knowledge, critical incident reports have not been analyzed in surgical subspecialties. Negative experiences, in particular, have an adverse effect on resident wellness by contributing to stress and burnout.…”