Clinical trial NCT06970340: Online MedEd Intern Bootcamp: Hybrid (Online+Live) Training for First Year Residents
Official title: Pilot Program: Effect of "Online MedEd" Intern Bootcamp Training on First Year Residents' Well-being and Skills Confidence. A Randomized Controlled Trial
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: ACTIVE_NOT_RECRUITING
Phase: NA
Conditions: Burnout Among First Year Residents
Keywords: Interns
Bootcamp
Burnout
Wellness
First Year Resident
Lead sponsor: New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2025-05-14
Enrollment: 24
Sex: ALL
Standard ages: CHILD
ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: CROSSOVER
Intervention model description: Crossover timeline:

First group July 15 2024 - January 05 2025 Second group January 06 2025 - June 15 2025
Primary purpose: TREATMENT

Brief summary: This study is testing a web-based "Intern Boot Camp" from Online MedEd to see if it can make the first year of residency less stressful for new internal-medicine doctors at Harlem Hospital. Right after orientation, residents are randomly placed into one of two groups:

Intervention group - gets six months of free access to the Bootcamp videos plus twice-a-week, one-hour review sessions led by senior residents the first 6 months of residency

Control group - gets the hospital's usual training and will receive the Bootcamp training starting at 6-month of residency.

The main thing the researchers want to know is: Does using the Boot Camp lower burnout-especially emotional exhaustion-compared with usual training? They will also look at the PHQ-9 depression survey and how confident residents feel about four everyday skills: mental health self-care, time management, oral presentation, and medical documentation. Surveys are completed at the start of residency and again six months later. Findings will show whether giving residents structured, on-demand preparation improves their well-being and confidence during the toughest part of their training.

Detailed description: New interns often describe their first months of residency as a "trial by fire." Studies show that roughly one-third of U.S. residents develop significant depressive symptoms during training, and burnout-particularly feeling emotionally drained-has been linked to more medical errors and even suicidal thinking . OnlineMedEd's Intern Boot Camp (OME-IBC) is an on-demand video course endorsed by the American College of Physicians to help graduating medical students get ready for residency, yet no one has formally tested whether it actually improves interns' well-being in a busy urban hospital setting .

This single-center pilot study will recruit the entire 2024-2025 class of first-year residents at Harlem Hospital. After obtaining consent, participants complete a baseline survey and are then randomly assigned (1:1) to one of two groups, stratified by sex, specialty and Emotional Exhaustion score.

Intervention group - receives six months of free access to the password-protected OME-IBC website plus twice-weekly, one-hour review sessions led by senior residents. Each two- to three-week mini-unit focuses on one of four practical domains-mental-health self-care, time management, oral presentation, and documentation. Participants watch a short video together and discuss it. The full curriculum spans about 35 sessions and can also be viewed asynchronously.

Control group - follows the program's usual orientation and on-the-job teaching without Bootcamp access during the first six months. After the 6-month, they are offered the same OME-IBC access and review sessions.

Outcomes

Primary outcome: change in emotional-exhaustion scores on the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI). A ≥27 on the EE subscale indicates high burnout; every one-point rise has been tied to a 5-7 % jump in suicidal ideation or major errors.

Secondary outcomes:

Changes in overall burnout (other MBI subscales)

Depressive-symptom severity on the PHQ-9 (0-27 scale)

Self-rated confidence (1 = "minimally confident" to 5 = "very confident") in the four Bootcamp skill areas

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Incoming first year of residency

Exclusion Criteria:

* Previous United States Accredited Postgraduate Training
* PHQ-9 score above 20
* PHQ-9 positive for suicidality (question 9)

Primary outcomes:
measure: Change from baseline Burnout at 3 months and 6 months
timeFrame: Baseline measurement, post-intervention measurements at 3 months and 6 months
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Proportion of participants whose PHQ-9 total score is ≥ 10 at 3 months and 6 months
timeFrame: Baseline measurement, post-intervention measurements at 3 months and 6 months
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Manhattan
country: United States
facility: Harlem Hospital Center
state: New York
Study officials:
affiliation: New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation
name: Raji Ayinla, M.D., CMD, FCCP, FACP
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: Guille C, Zhao Z, Krystal J, Nichols B, Brady K, Sen S. Web-Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Intervention for the Prevention of Suicidal Ideation in Medical Interns: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Psychiatry. 2015 Dec;72(12):1192-8. doi: 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2015.1880.