Department of Medicine
Division of Pulmonary Critical Care and Sleep Medicine

Wellness

Fellowship Wellness Event

We strive to provide an educational experience that also fosters fellow wellness.  Our wellness events seek to improve emotional health and well-being as well as promote social support and engagement.  While our clinical work is demanding, we have taken feedback from current and former fellows to improve rotations in order to minimize burnout. 

Personal wellness is vital to the success and professional satisfaction of every individual.

Nationally, rates of burnout are high among busy healthcare professionals. Wellness is a high priority in our department and in the School of Medicine and we strive to maximize wellness for all members of our community. 

Our Division in partnership with the Department of Medicine takes on the responsibility of:

  • enhancing the meaning that each physician trainee finds in the experience of being a physician, including protecting time with patients, minimizing non-physician obligations, providing administrative support, promoting progressive autonomy and flexibility, and enhancing professional relationships;
  • evaluating workplace safety data and addressing the safety of trainee, staff and faculty members;
  • establishing policies and programs that encourage optimal trainee, staff and faculty member well-being; and providing the opportunity to attend medical, mental health, and dental care appointments, including those scheduled during their working hours;
  • monitoring trainee, staff and faculty member burnout, depression, and substance abuse and of educating trainee, staff and faculty members in identification of the symptoms of burnout, depression, and substance abuse, including means to assist those who experience these conditions and to also recognize those symptoms in themselves and how to seek appropriate care.
  • providing access to appropriate tools for self-screening and to confidential, affordable mental health assessment, counseling, and treatment, including access to urgent and emergent care 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Trainees, staff and faculty members are encouraged to alert the program director or other designated personnel or programs when they are concerned that another trainee, staff or faculty member may be displaying signs of burnout, depression, substance abuse, suicidal ideation, or potential for violence.

ACGME Wellness Initiatives and Partnerships

 The ACGME has created this page to share with programs, institutions, residents, and fellows resources that promote a culture of well-being and provide support for burnout, depression, or suicide.

The ACGME has partnered with the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) to launch a new Action Collaborative on Clinician Well-Being and Resilience, co-chaired by ACGME CEO Thomas J. Nasca, MD, MACP, NAM President Victor J. Dzau, MD, and Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) President Darrell G. Kirch, MD.

The ACGME has also partnered with Mayo Clinic and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) in the initiative, “Physician and Medical Student Depression and Suicide Prevention” and have developed a toolkit, fact page, a compilation of resources for physicians, and a Prevention Programs source list.

Back to Bedside is an ACGME initiative designed to empower residents and fellows to develop transformative projects that combat burnout by fostering meaning in their learning environments; engaging on a deeper level with what is at the heart of medicine: their patients.

Institutional Initiatives:

Fellowship Social Gallery