PsychEd Episode 24: COVID-19 and Medical Learner Wellness with Dr. Deanna Chaukos

Welcome to PsychEd, the psychiatry podcast for medical learners, by medical learners.

This episode covers medical trainee wellness during the COVID-19 pandemic with expert guest Dr. Deanna Chaukos, Staff Psychiatrist at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto and Wellness Lead for the Psychiatry Residency program at the University of Toronto.

The learning objectives for this episode are as follows:

By the end of this episode, you should be able to…

1. Define wellness and burnout and their importance in medical education/psychiatry

2. Understand strategies on how to maintain our own wellness and prevent burnout

3. Understand strategies to help others maintain their wellness and deal with burnout

*All through the lens of the COVID-19 pandemic

Hosts: Dr. Alex Raben (PGY5), Gray Meckling (CC3), Shaoyuan (Randi) Wang (CC3), Weam Sieffien (CC3)

Guest Staff Psychiatrist: Dr. Deanna Chaukos (Sinai Health Systems, Toronto)

Resources

1. COVID-19 Resources for Residents, infographic prepared by residents at the University of Toronto, including team member of PsychEd Nikhita Singhal

2. Resources for MD Wellness

3. Improving Mental Health During COVID-19

4. University of Toronto Office of Health Professions Student Affairs OHPSA

5. University of Toronto Postgraduate Wellness Office at UofT

6. Gerstein Crisis Centre

7. CAMH: COVID-19 Information for Healthcare Workers

8. CAMH self-referral for healthcare workers to access mental health services

9. UofT Faculty of Medicine: COVID-19 Wellness Resources for Faculty and Trainees

10. Canadian Psychiatric Association - COVID-19

11. American Psychiatric Association Well-being Resources

12. Seven tips for staying grounded as the world grapples with COVID-19: UofT Expert

13. AMA: 6 ways to address physician stress during COVID-19 pandemic

14. UBC - COVID-19 Resident Wellness Resources

15. Youtube video: Three steps to coping with anything (including COVID-19)

16. MHCC: Resource Hub: Mental health and wellness during the COVID-19 pandemic

17. CMHA: COVID-19 and mental health

Articles

1. CMA: Maintaining Your and Your Family’s Well-being During a Pandemic

2. BMJ Opinion: COVID-19 - the impact on our medical students will be far-reaching

3. AAMC: “A terrifying privilege”: Residency during the COVID-19 Outbreak

4. AMA: Residency in a pandemic: How COVID-19 is affecting trainees

5. CMAJ: Medical education needs reform to improve student well-being and reduce burnout, say experts

Examples of Medical Student Initiatives

• UofT News: As COVID-19 battle escalates, U of T students offer busy health-care workers help on the home front

• UofT News: Medical students collect personal protective gear for front line health-care workers, donate through U of T

• UofT News: 'We care and are here for them': U of T students help seniors cope with distancing during COVID-19

• COVID-19 Central

• Making a difference: UBC students help frontline medical workers during COVID-19

• McGill students rally their peers to provide support to frontline workers

• U of A medical students offering emergency child care to physicians and front-line health workers

• UCalgary medical and nursing students quickly answer the call for COVID-19 help

• News: Medical students providing support during COVID-19 containment effort (Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, Western University)

• Queen's students volunteer to help Kingston's medical professionals

• UOttawa MD students pitch in to help frontline health workers during COVID-19

• McMaster med students help their future colleagues during COVID-19

References 

1. Brooks, S. K., Webster, R. K., Smith, L. E., Woodland, L., Wessely, S., Greenberg, N., & Rubin, G. J. (2020). The psychological impact of quarantine and how to reduce it: rapid review of the evidence. The Lancet.

2. Eckleberry-Hunt, J., Van Dyke, A., Lick, D., & Tucciarone, J. (2009). Changing the conversation from burnout to wellness: physician well-being in residency training programs. Journal of Graduate Medical Education, 1(2), 225-230.

3. Eckleberry-Hunt, J., Lick, D., Boura, J., Hunt, R., Balasubramaniam, M., Mulhem, E., & Fisher, C. (2009). An exploratory study of resident burnout and wellness. Academic Medicine, 84(2), 269-277.

4. Dewey, C., Hingle, S., Goelz, E., & Linzer, M. (2020). Supporting clinicians during the COVID-19 pandemic. Annals of Internal Medicine.

5. Drolet, B. C., & Rodgers, S. (2010). A comprehensive medical student wellness program—design and implementation at Vanderbilt School of Medicine. Academic Medicine, 85(1), 103-110.

6. Dyrbye, L. N., Burke, S. E., Hardeman, R. R., Herrin, J., Wittlin, N. M., Yeazel, M., ... & Satele, D. V. (2018). Association of clinical specialty with symptoms of burnout and career choice regret among US resident physicians. Jama, 320(11), 1114-1130.

7. Kealy, D., Halli, P., Ogrodniczuk, J. S., & Hadjipavlou, G. (2016). Burnout among Canadian psychiatry residents: a national survey. The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 61(11), 732-736.

8. Lai, J., Ma, S., Wang, Y., Cai, Z., Hu, J., Wei, N., ... & Tan, H. (2020). Factors associated with mental health outcomes among health care workers exposed to coronavirus disease 2019. JAMA network open, 3(3), e203976-e203976.

9. Lebensohn, P., Dodds, S., Benn, R., Brooks, A. J., & Birch, M. (2013). Resident wellness behaviors. Fam. Med, 45, 541-549.

10. Santarone, K., McKenney, M., & Elkbuli, A. (2020). Preserving mental health and resilience in frontline healthcare workers during COVID-19. The American Journal of Emergency Medicine.

11. Shiralkar, M. T., Harris, T. B., Eddins-Folensbee, F. F., & Coverdale, J. H. (2013). A systematic review of stress-management programs for medical students. Academic Psychiatry, 37(3), 158-164.

CPA Note: The views expressed in this podcast do not necessarily reflect those of the Canadian Psychiatric Association.

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