Many radiology residents struggle with perfectionism. Mindset training could help
Could “mindset development” training be the key to mitigating burnout among radiology residents? Experts say adding it to the curriculum could help those struggling to adapt to the demands of residency.
The theory refers to how an individual’s mindset equips them to handle adversity. A growth mindset fosters resiliency and adaptability, while a fixed mindset can hinder a person’s ability to learn and grow. Individuals with fixed mindsets often view mistakes as personal failures, leading to feelings of inadequacy and stagnating personal and professional development.
Medical residency is rife with opportunities to make mistakes. It puts trainees (and their skills) under a microscope that constantly measures their performance, and without the right mindset, it can lead to burnout, self-deprecation and poor mental health.
“Current medical culture has been critiqued for valuing flawless performance over continuous improvement, an approach often compounded by constant evaluation, time-pressured clinical environments, and high productivity demands,” Olga Laur, MD, from the department of radiology at Weill Cornell Medicine, and colleagues wrote in Clinical Imaging. “These dynamics can discourage trainees from viewing challenges such as demanding rotations or procedural errors as learning opportunities. Instead, trainees may experience pervasive fear of failure and external judgment.”
The team recently sought to determine how active radiology residents perceive their own mindsets and whether they believe mindset development training to be beneficial. They recruited 48 residents from 5 institutions to undergo a 45-minute didactic lecture on mindset theory. The lecture discussed three mindsets considered maladaptive—“cog in the wheel,” “survival,” and “perfectionist,” and also introduced “growth.” Participants completed a post-lecture survey covering their own mindsets and what they took away from the lecture.
Just 6% of residents identified exclusively with the growth mindset. Perfectionism was found to be the most relatable for residents, with 65% saying they identified with it, followed closely by survival at 62%, while another 56% said they also related to the “cog in the wheel” mentality.
Around 35% reported feeling like they related to both “growth” and maladaptive mindsets prior to the lecture. However, the lecture appeared to create a shift; prior to the class 39% acknowledged that having a growth mentality was “very” or “extremely” important during residency, but after the lecture this figure climbed to 90%.
The majority of residents (88%) found the lecture to be helpful, and another 75% expressed interest in further mindset training.
“The results of this pilot study underscore the need for practical strategies to address maladaptive mindsets within medical education,” the authors noted. “While competency has traditionally been the primary focus of residency training, equal emphasis should be placed on fostering personal development and cultivating a growth-oriented approach to learning—a principle recently reflected in the Milestones 2.0 update by the ACGME for internal medicine programs.”
The team acknowledged that addressing burnout and mental health issues among residents requires a multifaceted approach, one that needs buy-in from faculty and institutional investments. However, they suggested that simple interventions, such as the short lecture they provided residents, can be a meaningful first step.
Read more of what they had to say here.
In addition to her background in journalism, Hannah also has patient-facing experience in clinical settings, having spent more than 12 years working as a registered rad tech. She began covering the medical imaging industry for Innovate Healthcare in 2021.