Transforming quality of life and resident training with a self-managed group
ABSTRACT Introduction: The Brazilian Unified Health System (SUS) serves as a key setting for health education grounded in the principles of Continuing Education. Residency programs combine both care and educational elements and, despite existing regulations, they still face challenges that affect residents’ quality of life, high rates of Burnout Syndrome among medical residents being an example of these issues. To mitigate negative impacts on mental health within residency training, a strategy called the Self-Managed Group (Grupo Autogerido) was developed within a Family and Community Medicine Residency Program, providing a protected space dedicated to residents. Experience Report: Created in July 2022 and composed of all active first and second-year residents, the group held monthly meetings aimed at improving interpersonal relationships, sharing experiences, and discussing institutional matters not addressed in other spaces. Activities included group dynamics that resulted in reflecting upon issues identified by residents as collective needs. Discussion: The effects of these group meetings were depicted through residents’ reports, secondary products resulting from collective actions, and longitudinal comparison of outcomes through time. The group enabled the identification of previously invisible issues within the program that affected residents’ mental health. Through the strengthened bonds among residents and the development of individual and collective interventions, focused especially on self-care and institutional reorganization, noticeable improvements in quality of life were reported. Conclusion: The Self-Managed Group proved to be an innovative intervention tool with strong potential for replication in other educational contexts facing mental health crises by adapting characteristics of health groups to the residency training environment in Family and Community Medicine.