Family Anesthesia Experience: Improving Social Support of Residents Through Education of Their Family and Friends

The bottom line

Educating residents' families and friends about the realities of anesthesiology training targets an overlooked buffer: lay support systems that cannot help with what they do not understand. For programs, it is a low-cost complement to institutional support structures amid resident burnout rates cited at 41–51%. Without controlled outcome data, the program's actual effect on burnout is undemonstrated.

What the source found

Describes the FAX program designed to educate residents' support systems about anesthesiology training demands; references burnout prevalence range of 41–51% among anesthesiology residents; associates training burnout with medical errors, physician turnover, and substance use disorder; identifies limited lay understanding of residency demands as barrier to effective support.

Limitations and applicability

Program description without controlled outcome data; PMC archive publication; burnout prevalence cited from prior literature rather than measured in this study.

Population and setting

Anesthesiology residents and their support networks

Used in FairShare guides

• Anesthesiology Residents and Burnout: What the Research Shows
• What the Literature Says About Burnout Risk Before You Even Start Practicing

About this evidence

Research question / practical issue

How does this source inform Understanding Anesthesia Burnout for the population it studied?

Study design, evidence tier, and source class

Peer Reviewed Program Description · primary source · evidence tier 2

Source type: Peer Reviewed Program Description · primary · Evidence tier 2

Topics: Understanding Anesthesia Burnout

Audience: Residents