Physician Wellness in Surgical Residency

Physician wellness has become an increasing focus of attention in recent years as burnout among healthcare professionals appears to be on the rise. Within this review, we attempt to define burnout and describe the ways in which resident well-being is being addressed within surgical residency programs. Burnout is a psychological construct, defined by emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and a low sense of personal accomplishment, which has been shown to affect physicians beginning in their medical training. In spite of mounting evidence of the negative effects of burnout on physicians’ personal and professional lives, there is relatively little evidence on how best to address this increasingly pervasive problem. We categorize various ways in which individual surgical residency programs attempt to improve the well-being of their trainees. Little consensus exists on how best to improve wellness for surgical trainees. Multiple individual programs have focused on a variety of interventions whose efficacy remains largely unproven. Increased standardization of burnout research with greater collaboration across institutions is needed in order to identify key wellness initiatives.