A Focus on a Culture of Trust and Caring: Impact on Resident Satisfaction with their Training Program

Disclosures: The authors have disclosed no relevant conflicts of interest. Objectives: Culture, "the environment in which we live and work, including the beliefs, behavioral rules, traditions, and rituals that bind us all together" is dynamic. A department's culture is constantly evolving as initiatives are implemented to make a department a great place to work and a healthy learning environment. These include resident outings, dinners at faculty homes, workplace events, guest speakers, universal mentoring meetings with residents, displays of research, support for university-wide awards to increase department pride. The impact of a series of interventions is examined to determine their effect on resident satisfaction and experience. Methods: Surveys were administered to residents ranking several program areas including competency-based residency training, general aspects, faculty and overall quality of training (each rotation discipline individually). Scores ranged from 1-5 and were compared to last year's evaluations. After a series of interventions, the survey was repeated. Results: 59% of the survey questions demonstrated an increase in scores, 10% demonstrated no change, and 31% demonstrated a decrease. However, larger improvements across a variety of categories were noted with smaller decreases occurring in other categories. Competency-based residency training showed an increase of 17%, general aspects an increase of 36%, faculty an increase of 36%, and overall quality a decrease of 10%. Conclusions: When the administrative leadership team emphasizes the importance of improving culture and taking action to do so within a department, significant changes are soon recognized. Understanding from surveys and resident oral feedback that improvements needed to be made, the administration took an active approach to addressing these problems. It is imperative to recognize that within our survey, the areas of 10% decrease are being addressed as our department continues to grow and faculty are recruited to improve subspecialty education. Along with faculty recruitment, monthly faculty-chair meetings, frequent resident-faculty holiday events, financial transparency and strong faculty-resident career mentorship are key efforts that are improving the culture of our department. Our goal is to obtain 4.5/5 scores from resident bi-annual evaluation by continuing to address suggestions from faculty and residents. We do this because of the evidence that satisfaction leads to a better learning environment, patient care, wellness, and greater research productivity.