Emotional Intelligence (EI) is a vital concept to the development of sustainable professionals. EI is made up of: knowing one’s emotions (self-awareness), managing emotions, motivating oneself, recognizing emotions in others, and handling relationships.^1,2 Our residency program has committed to cultivating these qualities in our residents using a learning portfolio. By the end of the first year the residents have multiple opportunities to focus on the medical knowledge they gain as well as how the patient’s experience with illness impacts them.

The recent Milestones provide opportunity to identify gaps in our current residency curriculum. Some of the Milestones are more difficult to capture and evaluate and can be done most effectively through resident self examination. Our learning portfolio creates a space in the curriculum to teach EI through reflection of resiliency, professionalism, wellness, and lifelong learning. The milestones help operationalize qualities that residents don’t always realize are essential to their professional development and sustainability.

Residents are constantly faced with powerful moments during their patient and professional encounters, yet do not always have time to process these experiences. This can lead to burnout, false conclusions, and lack of personal growth. Our new learning portfolio is a continuity lecture series concentrated in the first year of residency. We have developed a series of lesson plans, and we allow each resident a turn facilitating the session with the help of a faculty and a behaviorist. The residents have some brief “homework,” which typically involves a reflection document to complete and results in a better understanding of the milestones and core competencies.

The current learning portfolio integrates multi-media tools such as TED Talks, chapters from several books, including 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, How Doctor’s Think, and The Resilient Physician, as well as requires residents to research ACGME competencies, analyze their In-service Training Exam performance, role-play, and discuss work-life balance. For a complete set of lesson plans, see Appendix A. The purpose of the series is to develop a space in the curriculum for reflection and life-long learning and to share victories and struggles with a peer group.

As with any creative curriculum, there are challenges and opportunities for improvement. Attendance has been challenging, as people are sometimes on vacation or on night float. We have made attendance mandatory, but do not have consequences for missed sessions. As the Milestones allow us to capture some of the professionalism and interpersonal communication skills, our hope is that residents will realize the value in completing the lesson plan and achieving the competency. Acquiring buy-in from residents and faculty has been part of the learning curve, and we hope to use the portfolio for discussion with the faculty advisors during resident quarterly evaluations to help with this. We plan to use New Innovations as a central depository for the lesson plans and completion of assignments, as this has been difficult to track. The focus is not solely on the end product and completion of the assignment but instead on the process and reflection that goes into it.

We believe this project will lead to more emotionally intelligent professionals in family medicine. Our vision is to expand the curriculum beyond the first year of residency. Often the senior residents see the value of the reflective writing in hindsight, and engaging them to share this with junior residents will provide more credibility to the process and keep the learning portfolio innovative.

• Covey S. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. New York: Free Press, 1989.
• Goleman D. Emotional Intelligence, Why It Can Matter More Than IQ. Bantam Books, 2005.
• Groopman J. How Doctors Think. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2007.
• Sotile W, Sotile M. The Resilient Physician: Effective Emotional Management for Doctors and Their Medical Organizations. American Medical Association, 2002.