Wellness

Our Florida Atlantic University Emergency Medicine Residency is dedicated to providing the highest level of emergency medicine training in a culture of wellness among our resident trainees. We have a number of resources that are available to residents to ensure wellness is promoted.

Resilience is typically defined as “the process of experiencing an adversity and managing to maintain a relatively stable trajectory of healthy functioning and adaption.”   Our goal is that a concerted effort to increase resilience and wellness among the resident trainees will produce physicians that are less stressed and better able to provide high level of patient care.

Through a combination of wellness activities, wellness resources and didactics we hope to accomplish specific goals with our wellness program:

1. To learn a healthy work-life physician balance
2. To educate trainees on what wellness is and how to achieve it
3. To provide a mentorship support system that fosters early recognition of physician burnout or decreased wellness

In creating our own wellness, program, there are 4 primary areas which require attention:

• Physical – the human body is designed for constant activity, which serves as both an outlet for accumulated stress as well as a respite from the constant onslaught of mental activity and worry
• Intellectual – a steady diet of medical fact and theory is unhealthy for the intellect; focus on non-professional activities (music, current events, art, social discourse) is essential
• Emotional – running a busy emergency department and simultaneously a family or personal life leaves little energy for renewing one’s own emotional needs for security and stability.  Prior professional thinking accepted this as our baseline, perhaps manageable in simpler times but deleterious in today’s environment
• Spiritual – this may take a number of forms, from established religious activity to time spent in the quiet of a natural environment

To effect these areas a combination of activities and resources will be available.

Activities:

• Resident Orientation and Welcoming Party
• Biannual Resident Retreats
• Resident Support Group Monthly Luncheons
• EMS Team Building Exercises
• Sim Wars events

Didactics:

Resident Wellness Lecture Series

• Burnout and How to Avoid It
• Tricks of the Trades
• Saving the Shift: Dealing with Difficult People
• Circadian Rhythm, Sleep and Medical Errors
• Juggling Personal & Professional Life

Life After Residency Lecture Series

• Managing Finances After Residency
• Contracts
• How to Stay Out of Court
• Billing 101
• Patient Satisfaction

Resources:

• Faculty-Resident Mentorship Program
• Florida Atlantic Employee Assistance Program
• University Gym Membership
• Resident Support Group Committee
• Florida Atlantic University Stress/Depression Resource Center