Shedding Light on Work at Night: Novel Data Collection Provides Comprehensive Assessment of Neurology Residents' Overnight Workload, Without Increasing Burnout
Matheus Otero1, Matthew Swan1, Shanna Patterson1
1Department of Neurology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Objective:
To determine if a novel data collection method offers a more accurate assessment of neurology residents' overnight workload, thus informing strategic improvements in staffing, while also evaluating the impact of the survey process on resident wellness and perceptions of program responsiveness.
Background:
Traditional volume-based metrics reliably underestimate residents' overnight workload, as they fail to capture time dedicated to a variety of tasks and responsibilities.
Design/Methods:
From February to June 2024, neurology residents at a teaching hospital in New York City completed surveys following overnight call, detailing workload metrics such as time spent on patient assessments, documentation and communication tasks. Traditional volume metrics were concurrently collected. Wellness surveys assessing burnout symptoms and perceptions of program responsiveness were administered at the beginning and end of the study period.
Results:
Residents averaged 148.4 minutes on patient assessments and 107.4 minutes on documentation per night, along with 54.3 minutes handling pages or calls. Despite the added effort of the data collection process itself, burnout levels did not increase; residents reported burnout symptoms decreased from 26.67% to 21.43% from the beginning to the end of the study period. A 25% increase in residents responding they “strongly agree” the program is responsive to their concerns was observed at the end of the study period.
Conclusions:
This novel data collection method provided a more comprehensive understanding of resident workload, revealing significant time commitments overlooked by traditional metrics and indicating that traditional measures underestimate resident burden. This information is crucial to informing administrative decisions, such as hiring staff to alleviate resident workload. Engaging residents in data collection did not increase burnout and was associated with improved perceptions of program support and responsiveness, suggesting that such initiatives may positively impact resident wellness, even before potential staffing improvements are implemented.
Disclaimer: Abstracts were not reviewed by Neurology® and do not reflect the views of Neurology® editors or staff.