Professionalism education of OB/GYN resident physicians: What makes a difference?

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of a new Professionalism curriculum in an Obstetrics and Gynecology (OB/GYN) residency after introducing Narrative Medicine and Professional De-velopment/Support Group (PDSG) programs. Methods: 32 OB/GYN residents participated in this IRB approved pilot study. Twenty residents were assessed with the Barry Challenges to Professionalism Questionnaire (Barry), the Jefferson Scale of Empathy-Physician Version (JSE), and the Jefferson Scale of Attitudes Toward Physician-Nurse Collaboration (JS-AT) in August 2010, as controls. Five Narrative Medicine sessions and four PDSG sessions were then used from August 2010-May 2011, for resident physician professionalism education. Seventeen residents then underwent post-testing with the Barry, JSE, and JSAT in May 2011. Results: The pre-test/post-test Barry comparison showed an improvement in scores after introduction of the new Narrative Medicine and PDSG curriculum (7.6 +/− 2.1 versus 8.4 +/− 1.6; p = 0.10) though this was not statistically significant. Pre-test/post-test comparison of JSAT scores showed a statistically significant decline in collaboration (52.3 +/− 4.1 versus 49.7 +/− 3.7; p = 0.028) while JSE scores showed a downward trend in empathy (109.3 +/− 10.0 versus 104.8 +/− 9.2; p = 0.086). Conclusion: Narrative Medicine and PDSG small group sessions could be an effective component of OB/GYN resident physician Professionalism curriculum. This pilot project was underpowered, due to limited resources.