On March 17, our VSVS team gave a one day workshop for the general surgical residents at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. Our 27 participants spent a 5 hour afternoon with us where the following issues were tackled:

1. Burnout among surgeons
2. Emotional intelligence and its use in general
3. Emotional intelligence in medicine
4. Emotional intelligence for combating burnout.

In that workshop, the audience was exposed to didactic as well as interactive sessions in which they learned about topics that covered:

1. Leadership
2. Resiliency
3. Coping strategies
4. Self-awareness and self-management
5. Stress management
6. Brain drain and brain gain concepts

The take home message for the participants were the following:

• An in depth understanding of how burnout and stress can hijack them as individuals and professionals
• The impact of burnout on them as individuals and professionals, and ultimately the poor outcomes when it comes to patient care
• Tools and strategies for them to recognize their danger points and to be able to recharge themselves and protect themselves from burnout

After the session, all participants answered a questionnaire that rated the topic, its use, its relevance, its importance as well as how it would help them and impact them. VSVS is extremely happy to report that we had a 100 % approval rating for the topic in how it was covered. The participants emphasized the following points:

• • Learned the importance and significance of burnout and its impact on them personally and the medical as well as the surgical community

• Understood the relationship between the practice of surgery and medicine and emotional intelligence
• Understood the importance of emotional intelligence for them as individuals, as physicians, as leaders and the potential tremendous positive impact that EI would have on them and their patients

• Approved further in depth workshops and efforts to incorporate emotional intelligence, to protect against burnout and to intervene on all possible educational and practice levels (medical schools, residencies and fellowships, as well as attendings and professors levels).

Since this workshop, We have since also presented on physician burnout at:

• West Houston Medial center,
• McGill University,
• Conroe Regional Medical Center, and
• Methodist Health System.

Contact us at info@vitalsignsvitalskills.com to discuss a similar workshop for you.