Steady decline in empathy scores during medical training is well documented. This affects quality of patient care, lower patient satisfaction and conversely, higher risk of burnout in physicians. Targeted immersive experiences can help bridge these gaps by giving learners an opportunity to reconnect with their passion for medicine and why they chose this profession in the first place. Additionally, a lack of control and system related pressures are considered leading causes for physician dissatisfaction and burnout. Learners of today are going to be the leaders of tomorrow; a focused curriculum to develop leadership skills and a deeper understanding of health care in various settings with stress on social determinants of health, barriers to health care and socioeconomic and psychological toll of disease processes on our patients can lead to the critical thinking that will be needed to become productive and effective leaders of tomorrow’s health care.
In a new program, the presenters have developed an innovative curriculum to bring these holistic attributes to strengthen the foundations of training. Interns spend one week immersed in a rotation in medical humanities. Their focus is to connect with patients at a human level, without the restrictions of time, rounds, diagnoses, and therapeutics. Each year, residents also rotate through two-week long rotations in inpatient care management (PGY-1), outpatient care management and home care (PGY-2), and health care policy, education, and outreach with local department of health (PGY-3) as a part of their population health and leadership rotation.
Presenters: Wasique Mirza, MD, Anil Singh, MD, Steven Suastegui, MD, Rohit Sharma, MD, Jenna Rabadi, MD, and Dipen Zalavadia