• Erin A Keyser, Larissa F Weir, Michelle M Valdez, James K Aden, and Renée I Matos.
• Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Brooke Army Medical Center, 3551 Roger Brooke Dr, San Antonio, TX 78234.
• Mil Med. 2021 Jan 25; 186 (Suppl 1): 153-159.

IntroductionClinician burnout is widespread throughout medicine, affecting professionalism, communication, and increases the risk of medical errors, thus impacting safe quality patient care. Previous studies have shown Peer Support Programs (PSPs) promote workforce wellness by supporting clinicians during times of heightened stress and vulnerability. Although these programs have been implemented in large institutions, they have not been used in military hospitals, which have high staff turnover and added stressors of deployments.Materials And MethodsIn December 2018, 50 physicians received 5 hours of PSP training at a military hospital from a nationally recognized PSP expert, following the programmatic structure described by Shapiro and Galowitz (2016). Utilization of the program was tracked from December 2018 to December 2019, recording only classification of provider type, triggering event, and provider specialty to maintain confidentiality. Qualitative comments from recipients and supporters were saved anonymously for quality improvement purposes.ResultsIn the first year of our PSP, 254 clinicians (102 [40.2%] residents/fellows, 91 [35.8%] staff physicians, 4 [1.6%] medical students, 35 [13.8%] nurses, 22 [8.7%] allied health) received 1:1 peer support. Primary specialties utilizing peer support included 135 (52.9%) medical, 59 (23.2%) surgical, 43 (16.9%) obstetric, and 18 (7.1%) pediatric. Patient death (25%), risk management notification (22%), medical error/complication (15%), and poor patient outcome (13%) were the most common events triggering peer support. Peer support was provided at 8 locations across the continental United States with universally positive comments from recipients.ConclusionsImplementation of a PSP at our institution led to rapid utilization across multiple hospitals in the military health system, a model that could easily expand to deployed settings and remote locations. Access to peer support across the military health system could both mitigate the increased risks of military clinician burnout, and improve patient safety, healthcare worker resilience, and service member readiness.© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

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