ABSTRACT
With increasing demands for medical care by society, the medical system, and general citizens and rapid changes in doctor’s awareness, the competencies required of doctors are also changing. The goal of this study was to develop a doctor’s competency framework from the patient’s perspective, and to make it the basis for the development of milestones and entrustable professional activities for each period of medical student education and resident training. To this end, a big data analysis using topic modeling was performed on domestic and international research papers (2011–2020), domestic newspaper articles (2016–2020), and domestic social networking service data (2016–2020) related to doctor’s competencies. Delphi surveys were conducted twice with 28 medical education experts. In addition, a survey was conducted on doctor’s competencies among 1,000 citizens, 407 nurses, 237 medical students, 361 majors, and 200 specialists.Through the above process, six core competencies, 16 sub-competencies, and 47 competencies were derived as subject-oriented doctor’s competencies. The core competencies were: (1) competency related to disease and health as an expert; (2) competency related to patients as a communicator; (3) competency related to colleagues as a collaborator; (4) competency related to society as a health care leader (5) competency related to oneself as a professional, and (6) competency related to academics as a scholar who contributes to the development of medicine.
ABSTRACT
Objective@#The purpose of this study was to analyze the current situation concerning professionalism among emergency physicians in South Korea by conducting a survey regarding their perceptions and experiences of unprofessional behavior. @*Methods@#In October 2018, the authors evaluated the responses to a questionnaire administered to 548 emergency physicians at 28 university hospitals. The participants described their perceptions and experiences concerning 45 unprofessional behaviors classified into the following five categories: patient care, communication with colleagues, professionalism at work, research, and violent behavior and abusive language. Furthermore, the responses were analyzed by position (resident vs. faculty). Descriptive statistics were generated on the general characteristics of the study participants. To compare differences in responses by position and sex, the chi-square and Fisher exact tests were performed. @*Results@#Of the 548 individuals invited to participate in this study, 253 responded (response rate, 46.2%). In 34 out of 45 questionnaires, more than half of participants reported having experienced unprofessional behavior despite their negative perceptions. Eleven perception questions and 38 experience questions for unprofessional behavior showed differences by position. @*Conclusion@#Most emergency physicians were well aware of what constituted unprofessional behavior; nevertheless, many had engaged in or observed such behavior.
ABSTRACT
Purpose@#This study aimed to investigate burnout and resilience among emergency physicians (EPs) at university teaching hospitals during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. @*Materials and Methods@#In April to May 2021, a survey was administered to 331 and 309 emergency medicine specialists and residents, respectively, from 31 university teaching hospitals in Korea. Data on the respondents’ age, sex, designation, working area, experience with treating COVID-19 patients, and personal experience with COVID-19 were collected. Based on the participants’ characteristics, quality of life (compassion satisfaction, burnout, and secondary traumatic stress), resilience, emotional content, and self-image were analyzed. @*Results@#A total of 247 responses were analyzed. Compared to specialists, compassion satisfaction and resilience in residents were not good, burnout was severe, and emotional content and self-image were less positive. Experiences with treating COVID-19 patients did not cause any difference in quality of life, resilience, emotional content, and self-image among participant subgroups. Personal COVID-19 experiences were associated with poor compassion satisfaction, resilience, less positive emotional content and self-image, and severe burnout. Compassion satisfaction, secondary traumatic stress, and resilience can definitively affect burnout. @*Conclusion@#The quality of life and resilience of EPs in university teaching hospitals in Korea during the COVID-19 pandemic have been low. Supportive measures to improve resilience can prevent burnout among emergency staff, particularly residents and EPs, with personal experiences related to COVID-19.
ABSTRACT
Background@#There is no national survey on medical school faculty members’ burnout in Korea. This study aimed to investigate burnout levels and explore possible factors related to burnout among faculty members of Korean medical schools. @*Methods@#An anonymous online questionnaire was distributed to 40 Korean medical schools from October 2020 to December 2020. Burnout was measured by a modified and revalidated version of the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Human Service Survey. @*Results@#A total of 996 faculty members participated in the survey. Of them, 855 answered the burnout questions, and 829 completed all the questions in the questionnaire. A significant number of faculty members showed a high level of burnout in each sub-dimension: 34% in emotional exhaustion, 66.3% in depersonalization, and 92.4% in reduced personal accomplishment. A total of 31.5% of faculty members revealed a high level of burnout in two sub-dimensions, while 30.5% revealed a high level of burnout in all three sub-dimensions.Woman faculty members or those younger than 40 reported significantly higher emotional exhaustion and depersonalization. Long working hours (≥ 80 hours/week) showed the highest reduced personal accomplishment scores (F = 4.023, P = 0.018). The most significant stressor or burnout source was “excessive regulation by the government or university.” The research was the most exasperating task, but the education was the least stressful. @*Conclusion@#This first nationwide study alerts that a significant number of faculty members in Korean medical schools seem to suffer from a high level of burnout. Further studies are necessary for identifying the burnout rate, related factors, and strategies to overcome physician burnout.