Abstract
Introduction
The ACGME (Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education) has been advocating for training of medical learners in sleep and fatigue mitigation, in attempt to enhance their wellbeing. While some educational programs include a one-time sleep didactic, prone to being overlooked, there is need for an educational resource which can be accessible to the learners throughout their training span. The trainees’ needs and readiness to learn may vary from time to time, therefore, continued access to educational resources can be very beneficial.
Methods
An electronic tool was created on Coggle, comprising of educational resources and content on the basic tenets of sleep quality, regulation, effects of deprivation and strategies to mitigate these effects. Links to free resources made available by AASM, such as “Choose Sleep,” were also included. The sleep resources were then incorporated in the overall continuum of Graduate Medical Education (GME) resources available to trainees, and was advertised in newsletters, incorporated in orientations (n=324) and wellness sessions (n=254). The GME Institutional Quality of Life data was obtained in 2018–2019 and in 2020 to ascertain baseline and post-intervention measures of wellness, workload and burn-out in trainees.
Results
Data collected in 2020, after introduction of Coggle, demonstrated: 1) A 4% increase of residents (n=1041) would rate their workload as “just right.” 2) A 9% increase of residents (n=1040) said their personal health and wellbeing was “very good” and “good.” 3) A 12% decrease of residents (n=1040) said they felt burned out at work. 4) A 5% decrease of residents (n=1037) said they felt they had become more calloused towards people since they first started training.
Conclusion
The analysis of learners’ feedback demonstrated that access to sleep training resources on a continuous, on-demand basis improved trainees’ personal health and wellbeing. The positive impact was sustained despite unprecedented stress caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Future steps include: 1) Moving the electronic tool to a more advanced platform with analytical capabilities. 2) Obtaining longitudinal data to assess the impact of the electronic tool on medical trainees’ sleep parameters. 3) Sharing the electronic tool with other organizations to improve wellbeing of all medical trainees and health professionals.
Support (if any):
The Development and Evaluation of Online Podcast Modules as a Toolkit for Teaching Genetics and Genomics Competencies in Post-Graduate Medical Education
