Increasing Resident Support Following Patient Suicide: Assessing Resident Perceptions of a Longitudinal, Multimodal Patient Suicide Curriculum.

OBJECTIVE: Patient suicide is a common experience in psychiatry residency, and its effects on trainees can be profound. There are currently no ACGME Common Program Requirements for education about patient suicide, and a need exists for evidence-based curricula to prepare residents for this difficult outcome. METHODS: A comprehensive patient suicide curriculum was developed utilizing multiple modes of delivering content, including a training designed to foster built-in support among peers in the healthcare workplace. The content was delivered at intervals over the course of the 2019-2020 academic year for 43 psychiatry residents at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. Pre- and post-curriculum surveys were obtained to assess the resident experience of the new curriculum. RESULTS: Twenty-seven residents completed the pre-curriculum survey and 25 completed the post-curriculum survey. Results demonstrated statistically significant improvements in ratings of preparedness to deal with the loss of a patient by suicide, preparedness to support a co-resident who has experienced the death of a patient by suicide, program-level support for residents, understanding systems-level and quality processes, and knowledge of what steps to take if finding out a patient has completed suicide. CONCLUSIONS: A multimodal approach incorporating understanding emotional reactions, provision of support, delineation of procedural issues, and education regarding quality and risk management considerations was effective at improving resident preparedness to cope following a patient suicide.

Faculty Self-Evaluation of Experiences with Delivering Feedback to Trainees Across Academic Ranks.

BACKGROUND: The ability to provide feedback is a developable faculty skill; however, it is unclear how academic rank impacts experiences with feedback delivery. METHODS: A survey was distributed to 1258 physicians of all academic ranks at a large academic medical center. Questions explored the respondent's feedback delivery beliefs and barriers. RESULTS: In total, 96% of respondents agreed feedback is important to resident education. Higher academic rank correlated with increased comfort with feedback delivery, and 89% of respondents experienced at least 1 barrier to feedback delivery. CONCLUSION: Feedback experiences vary across academic ranks, with full professors being more comfortable with feedback delivery and less likely to experience barriers. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40670-020-01196-5.

Formalizing Feedback: Introducing a Structured Approach in an Outpatient Resident Clinic.

OBJECTIVE: Delivering feedback is an integral part of graduate medical education. This paper will present how feedback research informed the development of a new feedback model and discuss its implementation and evaluation by residents in an outpatient psychiatry clinic. METHOD: After reviewing research, a new feedback model of self-determined goal setting with guided objectives and quarterly formal in-person feedback sessions was implemented with 10 psychiatry residents during their 12-month outpatient experience in postgraduate year (PGY)-3. Residents received a pre-intervention survey to assess existing opinions of feedback and goal setting and a post-intervention survey to evaluate experiences with the new feedback model. RESULTS: On the pre-intervention survey, 3 of 8 resident respondents indicated they had previously set goals, and only 4 of 8 predicted goal setting would be helpful, with average helpfulness rating of 3.62 (scale of 1 to 5). Cumulatively, 10 PGY-3 residents set 31 goals over the academic year. On the post-intervention survey, resident respondents rated the helpfulness of goal setting at 4.71 and quarterly, formal, in-person feedback meetings at 4.86. Success at reaching their self-determined goals was rated at 5 by all respondents. CONCLUSIONS: Utilizing self-determined goals and formal in-person feedback sessions seemed to provide the framework for an effective feedback model in an outpatient resident clinic. This pilot project suggests that introducing formal feedback models can have a positive impact on resident clinical and educational growth. The data support expanding the model to assess its generalizability with the goal of furthering development of evidence-based feedback models.