Connection Index Manual

Connection Index CI 12 Study in Academic Psychiatry

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WHY ASSESS INTERPERSONAL INTERACTIONS IN MEDICAL EDUCATION?

Medical education has unique stressors that other careers don’t have: sick and dying patients, exposure to traumatic life situations and severe illness, and a higher than average work week to meet the demands of a high workload. In addition, there is a never ending amount of information to learn and absorb, debt accrued in the process, and often stress to come home to as well. Medical students and residents are strong and resilient, but they also come up against significant stressors and must adapt. To do this, recovery from these stressors must take place. Where does recovery occur? How do we optimize wellness, meaning, and thriving in those that train in this incredible, humanitarian field? Without recovery, chronic stress turns into burnout, which increases risk of depression and even suicidality. This leads to decreased educational goals and lower patient care.  To better study how to optimize what occurs in training, we must look at how to create work environments and work relationships, which can be part of the recovery process. If we have ways of accurately assessing interpersonal dynamics within the medical team, we can start to target interventions and study how connection leads to better educational and patient outcomes.