Is Balint Group Work Improve Doctor-Patient Relationships Among Psychiatry Residents

AIMS: One of the effective interventions in reducing stress and burnout and increasing the job satisfaction and relationship of doctors is participation in Balint groups. The purpose of this study is to design, implement and evaluate the use of Balint groups in improving doctor-patient relationships among first-year psychiatry residents at the University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences (USWR), Tehran, Iran. METHODS: This study was a pretest-posttest study conducted in 2022. First-year psychiatry residents at USWR were invited to join a Balint group through the Department of Psychiatry, and then they were called to attend an interview. During the interview, the inclusion and exclusion criteria for the study were reviewed. The requirements for participating in an online Balint group, including having a strong internet connection and the ability to work and communicate properly with the group, as well as ethical considerations such as the ability to keep confidential information within the group were examined. 12 group meetings were held for 6 months. The group leader had previously led various Balint groups for medical staff. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the sessions were held online on Skype. The participants completed the demographic information questionnaire, the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy, and the patient communication questionnaire before and after participating in the Balint group. Next, data analysis was done using SPSS software version 25. RESULTS: The average (standard deviation) age of the participants in the study was 30.70 (±4.54) years. Ten Participants included both male and female first-year psychiatry residents, eight of which were females, and eight were married. They all worked at the university. 70% had a high interest and 30% had an average interest in their field. Intra-group comparisons using the paired t-test showed that the the participants’ scores in the following areas significantly increased after the intervention: verbal communication skills (t=−6.26, P < 0.001), non-verbal communication skills (t=−9.76, P < 0.001) and total communication skills (t = −5.72, P <0.001). Also the results showed a significant increase in the scores of the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy after the intervention (t =−10.67, P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: The results of the present study showed that participating in Balint group work can have a significant effect on the communication skills and the level of empathy among psychiatry residents. The results of this study are in line with Parker and Leggett's study (2012) and confirm the effectiveness of the Balint group work . Also, the results of this study are consistent with the studies of Airagnes et al. (2014) and Gajree (2021) and show that adding the Balint group work to the Iranian psychiatry residency curriculum can be useful. Balint group work, psychiatry residency, doctor-patient relationship, empathy.