Proposal to improve wellness

March 5, 2020

           
          After reviewing the literature on physician burnout, I spent some time trying to figure out what type of intervention I could implement to improve wellness in the internal medicine residency training program. One of the ideas that I thought of was to turn one of the weekly academic half day into monthly wellness and resiliency sessions. During my CaRMS tour, I remember some of the residents talking about how much they enjoyed having weekly "Ice Cream Rounds" during their academic half days because they were able to debrief with their peers about some of the stresses they have been experiencing. This gave them an opportunity to really connect with their fellow colleagues. I can see how this would greatly contribute to a feeling of wellness because these dedicated sessions normalizes the process of sharing concerns and allows for peer support. I do understand that it will be challenging to dedicate academic half days to wellness and resiliency due to limited curriculum time but I would argue that being able to take of one self in order to care for others is also part the Professionalism role of CanMEDS. Furthermore, I think we should be allowed to have self-compassion and follow our own recommendations that we give our patients because we are all human beings at the end of the day.


-JT-