Available online 24 November 2022

Mentoring and Professionalism in Training (MAP-IT), a humanistic mentorship program, has demonstrated positive impact in non-surgical fields. This study assesses the feasibility of implementing MAP-IT in surgical residency and adapts MAP-IT to include residents-as-teachers (RAT). We hypothesize that MAP-IT will benefit surgical residents by building humanistic teaching skills, increasing resilience, reducing burnout, and improving connectedness.

MAP-IT was implemented monthly during protected educational time. Faculty surgeons who had previously completed MAP-IT served as facilitators. Small groups consisted of 12 trainees, two faculty facilitators, and one resident facilitator. Each session comprised 60 minutes of reflection, readings, and discussion surrounding humanistic mentoring skills. The Maslach Burnout Inventory-Human Services Survey (MBI-HSS), Connor Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC), and Humanistic Teaching Practices Effectiveness Questionnaire (HTPE) were administered before and after participation in MAP-IT. Qualitative interviews and surveys assessed residents’ perspectives of the MAP-IT program.

MAP-IT was implemented at Northwell-North Shore/LIJ in Manhasset, NY in a general surgery residency program hosted by two tertiary care hospitals within a large health system.

55 residents participated as learners, five residents served as resident-facilitators, and 10 surgical faculty served as paired-facilitators of the MAP-IT course.

31.6% of residents had participated in a reflective medicine curriculum prior to MAP-IT, and these residents reported greater resilience and less burnout. This disparity was eliminated after participation in MAP-IT. Frequency of burnout was reduced from 64.1% to 46.1% after MAP-IT participation. Post-program, residents reported greater effectiveness in humanistic teaching practices when compared to baseline assessments. Quantitative and qualitative feedback demonstrated that MAP-IT was well received by resident participants and addressed a gap in their surgical training.

A humanistic mentorship program involving RAT can be effectively implemented in surgical residency, is well-received by residents, and addresses a need surgical training by building skills and improving resident well-being.

Professionalism is one of the core pillars of surgical training and is incorporated into the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) Milestones’ competency evaluation.1,2 Developing surgeons’ professionalism and humanism is necessary to ensure high quality patient care.3 Historically professionalism and humanism were taught through role-modeling with a focus on the physician-patient relationship. However, today with increased trainee diversity and changes in the health care

This study was conducted at Northwell-North shore/LIJ in Manhasset, NY in a general surgery residency program hosted by two tertiary care hospitals within a large health system. There are approximately 99 medical students per class, 8 categorical general surgery residents per class and 155 (37 core) general surgery faculty. This study was granted a waiver of consent by the health system's Institutional Review Board.

Prior to implementing MAP-IT in the surgical residency program, surgical faculty

Among 60 residents expected to participate in the MAP-IT program, 57 participated in pre-implementation surveys. Three residents were excluded due to curriculum attrition. 46 residents participated in post-program surveys, yielding a study population of 38 residents. Surveys with all responses completed were included in this study. (Fig. 1) Resident characteristics of the baseline cohort and of the study population are outlined in Table 2. The study population did not differ from the baseline

This study underscores the need for a longitudinal reflective medicine course and the feasibility of implementing MAP-IT to fulfill that need within surgical residency. Less than one-third of our residents had prior experience with a reflective medicine curriculum. Importantly, these residents with prior experience reported greater resilience and less burnout prior to MAP-IT, but after MAP-IT there was no difference between residents with and without prior reflective medicine experience. Though

Overall, we demonstrated that implementation of MAP-IT, a longitudinal humanistic mentorship curriculum, in general surgery residency is effective and is well-received by residents. After participation in this program, residents demonstrated less symptoms of burnout, and improvement in specific humanistic teaching practices. The need for this curriculum, highlighted through qualitative interviews, is evident with numerous benefits including enhancing connectedness, emphasizing compassionate

Special thanks to Dr. Alice Fornari for introducing the MAP-IT curriculum to our department and for her previous work in this space, to Dr. Bilge Kalyon for leading the MAP-IT course, and to all surgical faculty who took the time to be trained and to run the program for their residents. The original MAP-IT program referenced was funded by the Arnold P Gold Foundation.

© 2022 Association of Program Directors in Surgery. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.