Promoting Resident Emotional Health Meaningful Connections: An Evaluation of a Wellness Game

I ntroduction

Physician wellness is a topic of significant national interest. Physician burnout is at its highest point during residency and is linked to many negative outcomes. The Core Emotional Needs are a useful framework to guide thinking toward wellness in residents: connection and acceptance, healthy autonomy and performance, reasonable limits, and healthy responsibility and standards. We examined the efficacy of a game (“Well, For Me…”) designed to improve social connection and acceptance among residents to reduce social isolation. We hypothesized that this activity would be viewed positively by the residents as an intervention to improve resident wellness.

Methods

Participants from three programs played a newly developed game in which players take turns answering questions requiring degrees of self-disclosure. More “applause” points are scored with increasing self-disclosure. Subjects completed an anonymous self-administered evaluation immediately after playing the game. After the survey, a group interview was conducted.

Results

Games lasted 40-45 minutes and required no preparation. Of a possible 70 participants, 47 (67%) completed the survey (10 Likert-Style questions from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5)). Scores related to increased connection and acceptance averaged 4.15. Grouped themes support the survey data - those items that scored higher deal with connection to others. The intervention was well received by the participants.

Conclusion

Playing “Well, For Me…” demonstrated the capacity to provide the connection and acceptance from peers necessary to limit social isolation and support resident wellness.