Leadership Lessons from the Field: Leading Trainees to Cope with Death
Abstract
During COVID, many trainees (resident physicians) have experienced an insurmountable exposure to patient mortality. Prior to the pandemic, residents reported inadequate training in end-of-life care. The COVID pandemic only compounded this as trainees experienced more responsibilities with potentially less oversight caring for a potentially lethal virus without curative therapy. While the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education and the American Board of Internal Medicine recommend curricula cover end-of-life topics, residents still feel unprepared. Patient debrief sessions present an opportunity for trainees to process their feelings, emotions, and insecurities as a group while learning from the dying process. At this time in our residency program and others that we are familiar with, there is no mandated or suggested approach to discussing patient death with trainees. When a patient death occurs some attendings may choose to lead a debrief session, however, this is not the standard. Debrief sessions provide the opportunity to facilitate discussion about patient death and can be helpful for all stakeholders. However, for debrief sessions to be effective there needs to be a supportive environment and opportunities for trainees to share their experiences, ask questions, and reflect1. There is a need to enhance awareness and attention to resident grief and coping, especially during the busy times of COVID. This may in part be due to a lack of faculty training on how to facilitate a debrief session, time constraints, and/or comfort level. This case illustrates a scenario in which a trainee finds a lack of support and inattention to their feelings when a patient is transitioned to comfort care and passes away the following day.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 22, 2022
- Accession Number
- AD1164327
Entities
People
- Durning
- Jaime L. Geringer
Organizations
- 59th Medical Wing