Identifying Barriers to Precepting Health Professions Learners During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Background and Objectives: The COVID-19 pandemic worsened the shortage of clinical training opportunities for health professions learners. During the pandemic, additional barriers to precepting health professions learners emerged. Understanding preceptors' perceptions of barriers is a first step to providing learners with the best clinical learning opportunities. Methods: In February 2021, the Emory Primary Care Consortium surveyed primary care providers eligible to precept health professions learners to determine their current precepting status and associated barriers encountered during and since COVID-19. Results: A total of 61 physicians and 11 nurse practitioners (NPs) or physician assistants (PAs) completed the survey. Of the 41 current preceptors, 29 precepted only MD students, 2 MD and PA students, 7 NP students only, and 3 PA students only. Of the 31 respondents who were not precepting, most (21) had precepted before March 2020 and not since. Pandemic-related precepting challenges included low patient volume (12), lack of comfort teaching in a telehealth setting (7), increased external pressure (eg, children at home; 8), and other reasons (12). Overall, 20 respondents were interested in training on incorporating students into the telehealth clinical workflow and 13 in training on teaching and providing feedback remotely. Conclusion: The COVID-19 pandemic placed additional burdens on preceptors in primary care. Preceptors could benefit from training on incorporating students into telehealth visits. Increased understanding of preceptor needs could lead to new resource offerings and improved future medical education.

Flourishing in Healthcare Trainees: Psychological Well-Being and the Conserved Transcriptional Response to Adversity.

While much attention has been paid to healthcare provider and trainee burnout, less is known about provider well-being (i.e., flourishing) or about the effects of well-being on immune function. This study examined the demographic and psycho-social correlates of well-being among healthcare trainees (resident physicians and physician assistant (PA) trainees) and evaluated the association of well-being with the "conserved transcriptional response to adversity" (CTRA) characterized by up-regulated expression of pro-inflammatory genes and down-regulated expression of innate antiviral genes. Participants (n = 58) completed self-reported assessments of sleep disturbance, loneliness, depressive symptoms, anxiety, stress, and well-being (flourishing). Blood sample RNA profiles were analyzed by RNA sequencing to assess the CTRA. Slightly over half (n = 32; 55.2%) of healthcare trainees were categorized as flourishing. Flourishing was less prevalent among primary caregivers, and more prevalent among trainees who exercised more frequently and those with fewest days sick. Loneliness (AOR = 0.75; 95% CI = 0.61, 0.91; p = 0.003) and stress (AOR = 0.65; 95% CI = 0.45, 0.94; p = 0.02) were associated with decreased odds of flourishing when controlling for other variables. Flourishing was associated with down-regulated CTRA gene expression, whereas loneliness was associated with up-regulated CTRA gene expression (both p < 0.05). Assessing these relationships in a larger, multi-site study is of critical importance to inform policy, curricula, and interventions to bolster sustainable trainee well-being.

Impact of App-Delivered Mindfulness Meditation on Functional Connectivity, Mental Health, and Sleep Disturbances Among Physician Assistant Students: Randomized, Wait-list Controlled Pilot Study.

BACKGROUND: Health care provider and trainee burnout results in substantial national and institutional costs and profound social effects. Identifying effective solutions and interventions to cultivate resilience among health care trainees is critical. Although less is known about the mental health needs of physician assistants (PAs) or PA students, accumulating research indicates that they experience similarly alarming rates of burnout, depression, and emotional exhaustion. Mobile app-delivered mindfulness meditation may be an effective part of salubrious programming to bolster long-term resilience and health among PA students. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to examine the impact of app-delivered mindfulness meditation on self-reported mental health symptoms among PA students. A secondary aim is to investigate changes in brain connectivity to identify neurobiological changes related to changes in mental health symptoms. METHODS: We recruited PA students enrolled in their third semester of PA school and used a longitudinal, randomized, wait-list-controlled design. Participants randomized to the mindfulness group were provided 1-year subscriptions to the 10% Happier app, a consumer-based meditation app, and asked to practice every day for 8 weeks. Before randomization and again after completion of the 8-week program, all participants completed resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging as well as self-report assessments of burnout, depression, anxiety, and sleep impairment. App use was acquired as a measure of mindfulness practice time. RESULTS: PA students randomized to the mindfulness group reported improvements in sleep impairment compared with those randomized to the wait-list control group (ηp2=0.42; P=.01). Sleep impairment decreased significantly in the mindfulness group (19% reduction; P=.006) but not in the control group (1% reduction; P=.71). There were no other significant changes in mental health for those randomized to app-delivered mindfulness. Across all students, changes in sleep impairment were associated with increased resting-state functional connectivity between the medial prefrontal cortex (a component of the default mode network) and the superior temporal gyrus, as well as between areas important for working memory. Changes in connectivity predicted categorical conversion from impaired to nonimpaired sleep in the mindfulness group. CONCLUSIONS: This pilot study is the first to examine app-based mindfulness for PA students' mental health and investigate the impact of mindfulness on PA students' brain function. These findings suggest that app-delivered mindfulness may be an effective tool to improve sleep dysfunction and that it may be an important part of the programming necessary to reduce the epidemic of suffering among health profession trainees.

The Impact of App-Delivered Mindfulness Meditation on Functional Connectivity and Self-Reported Mindfulness Among Health Profession Trainees.

Objectives: Previous research indicates that mindfulness meditation reduces anxiety and depression and enhances well-being. We examined the impact of app-delivered mindfulness meditation on resting state functional MRI (fMRI) connectivity among physician assistant (PA) students and surgery residents. Methods: PA students and residents were randomized to receive a popular meditation app or to wait-list control group. Before and after the 8-week meditation period, we acquired fMRI scans of participants' resting state, and participants completed a self-report measure of mindfulness. We used a 2 × 2, within- and between-group factorial design and leveraged a whole-brain connectome approach to examine changes in within- and between-network connectivity across the entire brain, and to examine whether changes in connectivity were associated with app use or to changes in self-reported mindfulness. Results: Meditation practitioners exhibited significantly stronger connectivity between the frontoparietal network and the left and right nucleus accumbens and between the default mode (DMN) and salience networks, among other regions. Mindfulness practice time was correlated with increased connectivity between the lateral parietal cortex and the supramarginal gyrus, which were also positively correlated with increased scores on the "Describing" subscale of the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire between baseline and post-meditation. These findings are consistent with previous research indicating that mindfulness-based interventions alter functional connectivity within the DMN and between the DMN and other networks both during meditation and at rest, as well as increased connectivity in systems important for emotion and reward. Conclusions: Recent commentaries call for healthcare provider and trainee wellness programs that are sustainable and preventive in nature rather than reactive; these data indicate that even brief sessions of app-delivered mindfulness practice are associated with functional connectivity changes in a dose-dependent manner.

Improving Depression Screening in Underserved Populations in a Large Urban Academic Primary Care Center: A Provider-Centered Analysis and Approach.

Screening for depression is paramount to identify patients with depression and link them to care, yet only 29% of patients in the primary care center (PCC) were screened for depression in 2016. A baseline survey identified provider barriers to depression screening, including lack of time, support staff, and referral resources. The purpose of this project was to increase depression screening in the PCC using the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-2/9). The authors created an educational program for staff and providers that included referral resources, treatment guidelines, and a decision-support tool in the electronic medical record. A retrospective chart review was performed, from January 2016 to June 2017, to determine the percentage of patients who received annual depression screening. During the program, the PCC saw an increase in depression screening rates. Thus, it is possible to overcome barriers to depression screening in a primary care setting by providing resources and education to clinicians.