Burnout and the Quantified Workplace: Tensions around Personal Sensing Interventions for Stress in Resident Physicians.

Recent research has explored computational tools to manage workplace stress via personal sensing, a measurement paradigm in which behavioral data streams are collected from technologies including smartphones, wearables, and personal computers. As these tools develop, they invite inquiry into how they can be appropriately implemented towards improving workers' well-being. In this study, we explored this proposition through formative interviews followed by a design provocation centered around measuring burnout in a U.S. resident physician program. Residents and their supervising attending physicians were presented with medium-fidelity mockups of a dashboard providing behavioral data on residents' sleep, activity and time working; self-reported data on residents' levels of burnout; and a free text box where residents could further contextualize their well-being. Our findings uncover tensions around how best to measure workplace well-being, who within a workplace is accountable for worker stress, and how the introduction of such tools remakes the boundaries of appropriate information flows between worker and workplace. We conclude by charting future work confronting these tensions, to ensure personal sensing is leveraged to truly improve worker well-being.

Physician challenges and supports during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic: A mixed methods study.

Introduction: During the COVID-19 pandemic, physicians encountered significant COVID-19-related negative experiences and psychological distress in both their personal and professional lives. To understand the factors that negatively impact physician well-being, a number of studies have pointed to multiple work system factors such as excessive workload and workflow interruptions. In addition, studies have shown that positive interpersonal relationships that provide social support may also serve as a buffering role against psychological distress. The aim of our study explores the challenges and sources of support for physicians relative to mental health symptoms. Methods: In this study, We used a cross-sectional study design with a convergent parallel mixed method approach combining both qualitative and quantitative data collected in parallel from a self-report questionnaire immediately following the first wave of COVID-19. The aim of our study explores the challenges and sources of support for physicians relative to mental health symptoms. Results: Of the 457 physicians in the study, the most frequently potential negative occupational experiences were, "Being at risk of contracting COVID-19 from patients/co-workers" (90.5%) and "Contact with distressed family members who cannot be with a loved one" (69.5%). We identified five common themes for main sources of social support (e.g. emotional support from family/friends) and six themes for challenges (e.g., work-related demands exacerbated by the pandemic). Discussion: Our study highlights COVID-19 and other pandemic-related challenges that negatively impacted the mental health of physicians. Interventions that provide targeted organizational supports (e.g. sufficient PPE and child support), as well as specific sources of support (e.g. family and emotional), can attenuate those challenges and stressors experienced during a pandemic.