The following is a summary of “Effects of an educational compact intervention in Self-care – a mixed methods study with postgraduate trainees in primary care,” published in the June 2023 issue of Primary Care by Schwill et al.
Several studies show that family medicine (FM) doctors deal with a lot of stress and are significantly affected by burnout syndrome. The study aimed to determine the benefits of a “compact intervention” (a short intervention) in self-care on FM patients.
Researchers did a mixed-methods study with FM residents in the KWBW VerbundweiterbildungPLUS© program at the same time and independently. FM residents could choose to take part in a two-day session on self-care that lasted 270 minutes. This could be seen as a small intervention. Before (T1) and ten to twelve weeks after (T2) the course, study subjects filled out a form and were called back to be interviewed. The main goals of the numeric part were to look at how people thought their thinking and actions had changed. The qualitative outcomes were all the possible effects of the compact intervention on the subjects’ skills and all the different behavior changes caused by the immediate intervention.
Out of n = 307 people living in FM, n = 287 people (n = 212 in the intervention group and n = 75 in the control group) participated in the study. At T2, 111 post-intervention surveys were finished. 56% said the intervention was good for their health (n = 63/111). At T2, the number of people willing to act was significantly higher than at T1 (P=.01): 36% (n = 40/111) had changed their behavior, and half of the study subjects (n = 56/111) had taught others skills. N = 17 of the people in the control group also gave an interview. FM residents liked a learning environment where they could trust each other, a teaching method that involved them and authentic tasks. They talked about what made them want to act and what those actions would be. A small exercise in self-care could improve health, build skills, and change behavior if it was part of a training program where the group worked well together. Long-term effects need to be determined by more research.
Source: bmcprimcare.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12875-023-02074-w