NEW YORK, May 6, 2021 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/
-- Recognizing that burnout and stress have a negative impact
on the personal and professional lives of faculty, staff, and
trainees, as well as the quality of care that patients receive, the
Mount Sinai Department of Surgery has launched the Stress
Intervention Tools (SIT) program to help surgeons work through
their emotions, reduce their anxiety, and manage crises.
Burnout has long been common among surgeons, but reports suggest
that it has become more prevalent and acute during the COVID-19
pandemic. In its "2021 General Surgeon Lifestyle, Happiness &
Burnout Report," Medscape noted that the percentage of general
surgeons who reported being happy outside of work declined from 84
percent to 67 percent. Furthermore, approximately 35 percent of
general surgeons reported that they are burned out and depressed,
and 83 percent of those experiencing burnout indicated they felt
that way before the pandemic began. And six out of 10 general
surgeons reported that burnout has had at least a moderate impact
on their lives.
"Long before the pandemic hit, it became apparent to me we
needed to have a strategy in place that would be more effective in
helping our surgeons, trainees, and administrative staff to manage
the stress they were experiencing due to increasing demands placed
upon them," said Michael L. Marin,
MD, the Jacobson Professor of Surgery at the Icahn School of
Medicine at Mount Sinai and
Surgeon-in-Chief of the Mount Sinai Health System. "Given that some
people have a stigma about psychiatry, I cultivated the idea for a
program led by a mindfulness trainer who could listen, talk through
challenges, and equip our team with tools that enable them to
address their internal strife and prevent crises from
occurring."
An innovative, holistic initiative, SIT meets people where they
are, helping them build resilience, manage situations, work through
emotions, and increase their sense of calmness and well-being
through a range of interventions, including a seven-week
mindfulness stress management course known as the Surgeon's Seven,
guest speaker presentations, and one-on-one sessions. Led by
Jane Lodato, Chief of Wellness for
the Department of Surgery, the program was developed in
collaboration with Dr. Marin using research-based interventions.
Ms. Lodato, a member of the second international cohort of the
Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program sponsored by
the University of California,
Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center, uses first-hand
insights into the resilience required to manage fast-paced,
high-stress environments she acquired through her previous
experience in executive positions.
"There are many health care organizations offering mindfulness
programs and other forms of support that are invaluable, but we
believe that SIT takes a unique embedded approach to stress
management that is proactive, integrated, and personalized," said
Ms. Lodato. "By offering one-on-one consultations on demand, we are
able to provide them with specific practices that can be used to
manage almost any situation as it unfolds without missing a beat.
The more they practice using their awareness tools, the more they
rewire their neural pathways, becoming mindful and less encumbered
by the stressful situations we face each day. The goal is to help
all learn to reduce stress, fatigue, or the sense of being
overwhelmed in order to gain balance, confidence, and joy in work
and in life."
"From my perspective, the real value of SIT is that it helps
improve interpersonal relationships, whether that is with my
colleagues or my patients," said Peter
Faries, MD, Chief of Vascular Surgery, and Professor of
Surgery, and Radiology, at Icahn Mount Sinai. "Through the
one-on-one sessions in particular, I have gained more awareness not
only of the factors that contribute to my own reactions to
situations but those that influence the reactions of others. That
increased understanding enables me to manage interactions and
situations in a more empathetic and psychologically healthy way,
which benefits everyone involved."
The launch of the program reaffirms Mount Sinai's longstanding commitment to
enhancing the health and well-being of its faculty, staff, and
trainees. Previous initiatives have included the Office of
Well-Being and Resilience, which connects people with support
services, and the Mount Sinai Center for Stress, Resilience and
Personal Growth, which is addressing the psychosocial effects of
COVID-19 on health care workers. Through these undertakings,
Mount Sinai has set standards
among health care centers for addressing burnout and stress, and
SIT has the potential to build on that legacy.
"Based on the benefits we are seeing so far, I believe the
program can have a meaningful impact on the professional and
personal quality of life for people who work in health care even in
a post-COVID-19 setting because the ability to more effectively
manage emotions, anxiety, and stress will always have value," Dr.
Marin said. "Our goal now is to gather more data on the program's
effectiveness to see how we can grow and improve it and then we can
start to share it with other specialties and health systems."
About the Mount Sinai Health System
The Mount Sinai Health System is New York
City's largest academic medical system, encompassing eight
hospitals, a leading medical school, and a vast network of
ambulatory practices throughout the greater New York region. Mount Sinai is a national and international
source of unrivaled education, translational research and
discovery, and collaborative clinical leadership ensuring that we
deliver the highest quality care—from prevention to treatment of
the most serious and complex human diseases. The Health System
includes more than 7,200 physicians and features a robust and
continually expanding network of multispecialty services, including
more than 400 ambulatory practice locations throughout the five
boroughs of New York City,
Westchester, and Long Island. The Mount Sinai Hospital is
ranked No. 14 on U.S. News & World Report's "Honor Roll" of the
Top 20 Best Hospitals in the country and the Icahn School of
Medicine as one of the Top 20 Best Medical Schools in country.
Mount Sinai Health System hospitals are consistently ranked
regionally by specialty and our physicians in the top 1% of all
physicians nationally by U.S. News & World Report.
For more information, visit https://www.mountsinai.org or find
Mount Sinai on Facebook, Twitter
and YouTube.
Media Contact
Lucia Lee, Mount Sinai Health
System, 212-241-9200, lucia.lee@mountsinai.org
SOURCE Mount Sinai Health System