Burnout is increasingly common in neurologists and can lead to depression, anxiety, and decreased productivity. Individual-focused interventions to increase resilience are a promising approach to reduce burnout and its harmful effects.  

Neurologists and other neuroscience clinicians were recruited at department meetings across the HealthPartners and Park Nicollet care groups.  The SMART intervention included sessions related to relaxation response elicitation, stress awareness and adaptive strategies and was taught as eight 1-hour sessions over 4 months. While in-person attendance was preferred, live streaming and recorded session options were also available.  Secure on-line surveys were administered before the intervention, after the intervention, and at 4 months after completion.  Survey measures included the Perceived Stress Scale, Copenhagen Burnout Inventory, Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, and course satisfaction. 

Thirty-nine of 74 eligible participants consented to participate (average 45 yr old, 42% male). Attendance method was mixed with 68% completing all 8 classes.  Stress and burnout significantly decreased (-2.8, p=0.010; -7.6, p=0.005) from pre to post intervention and the reduction was sustained at 4 months post intervention (-3.5, p=0.006; -8.4, p=0.009).  Resilience similarly increased and was sustained (0.6, p=0.017; 0.8, p=0.002).   Clinicians were satisfied with the intervention with 68% rating it as excellent or good and 71% indicating positively that they would recommend to other clinicians.  

In this prospective study, the SMART program significantly decreased stress and burnout in a practicing group of neurologists and neuroscience clinicians.