Putting resident well-being first
Residency can be an inherently stressful time and the transition from medical student to intern can be an especially stressful event. While working hard to ensure that you develop the necessary knowledge and technical skills for excellence, we are also working hard to support your professional, emotional, physical and social well-being. We believe it is important to dedicate resources to specifically help residents: maintain their compassion for others and self; maintain their sense of purpose, meaning, and professional fulfillment and even joy of practice; develop resiliency skills; and maintain or develop habits of healthy living and self-care. Activities in the curriculum specifically focused on this mission include dedicated conferences, workshops, retreats, communication training in a skills lab, as well as the Leadership Management Training Program. Many of these efforts have been in existence since before 2008.
A sampling of our wellness initiatives:
The list below highlights only some of the initiatives that have been offered (as well as new initiatives being implemented this year) which focus on building community, mitigating stress and supporting the wellness of our residents.
- IMWELL Committee: a committee comprised of residents, program leadership and select faculty dedicated to assessing the needs of residents and planning activities to address these needs
- Half day professional well-being workshops for interns focusing on professional fulfillment, meaning and purpose
- Full day intern well-being retreat emphasizing community building, communication skills, skills needed to respond to challenging patient encounters, and professional fulfillment
- Half day well-being retreats for residents focusing on such topics as managing transitions, life-work balance, understanding communication styles and skills needed for conflict management, the connection between nutrition, physical health and cognitive well being (new this year)
- Educational conferences focusing on financial well-being, sleep hygiene, mental health resources, and analysis of medical errors
- Social events organized by interns and residents
- Opportunities for volunteerism and community work
Other resources available to you as a member of our team:
- As a benefits-eligible Ohio State staff member, you have access to the Ohio State Employee Assistance Program (EAP) that offers tools and resources to help address complex issues that can be affecting your mental and emotional well-being and help you live life while being a physician in training.
- On line tools including meditation tools, stress reduction tools and self-awareness/self-management tools
We hope that the curricular activities we offer might mitigate burnout, as well as provide strategies to foster resilience and support trainees to further experience the joy of practice in our community. Our hope is that the skills learned during these experiences will be utilized by our residents throughout their careers at Ohio State and beyond.