Reflections and Summaries from the 2017 Resident Wellness Consensus Summit

The first ever Resident Wellness Consensus Summit (RWCS) was held this year as a pre-day to Essentials of EM on May 15, 2017 in Las Vegas. This was an amazing opportunity for residents across North America to come together and discuss the important topic of resident wellness. We even had some participants from Fiji! Many of the attendees participated in pre-work for the RWCS through their involvement in the Wellness Think Tank, which is our virtual community of practice that involves residents from across the U.S. and Canada. In addition to pre-work for the RWCS, the members participated in online discussions on wellness and worked closely with our Wellness Strategists.

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By Nicole Battaglioli, MD|2017-06-20T13:32:13-07:00Jun 9, 2017|Wellness, Wellness Think Tank|

Wellness and Resiliency during Residency: EM is a career with unresolved stories

“We do make a difference, but not just in the setting of resuscitating critically ill or injured people, but in putting people on the pathway to health. We often get cheated out of the ending of the movie. We don’t see the romantic side of what we’ve helped facilitate. We certainly don’t get credit for it.” – Dr. Richard Cantor

There are lots of reasons why Emergency Medicine (EM) has one of the highest burnout rates compared to other medical specialties.^1,2 We have long and erratic hours, difficult patients, and an increasing number of bureaucratic tasks such as clicking boxes in an electronic medical records system or ensuring high patient-satisfaction survey responses.² These stresses are not unique to EM, but our high-volume and high-acuity patient loads do amplify those stresses compared to other fields.

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By Arlene Chung, MD|2019-04-06T00:56:59-07:00May 10, 2017|Wellness, Wellness Think Tank|

Wellness and Resiliency During Residency: Professional Identity Formation (featuring a podcast with Dr. Michael Weinstock)

“So I had medicine in my blood. But just because you have medicine in your blood doesn’t mean that it’s always smooth sailing.” —Michael Weinstock, MD

What is “professional identity formation”?

As Abraham Fuks and colleagues once said, “One does not simply learn to be a physician, one becomes a physician.”¹ Professional Identity Formation (PIF) is the slow transformative process by which an idealistic pre-medical college student becomes a battle-hardened emergency physician attending. PIF occurs slowly over years of exposure to the culture of medicine. From Day 1 of medical school, we watch how doctors in the world around us think, teach, feel, and act and slowly absorb those lessons over time, often without even being consciously aware of it happening. These lessons can be inspiring or toxic.

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By Arlene Chung, MD|2017-05-09T19:16:30-07:00Apr 24, 2017|Wellness, Wellness Think Tank|

Calling all U.S. EM residents: 5 Reasons to Fill out the 2017 National EM Resident Wellness Survey

This week the Wellness Think Tank is launching a resident wellness survey for Emergency Medicine residency training programs across the United States. We want 100% of EM residents to complete this important survey and we need your help! Check out 5 reasons why you should take our survey TODAY, if you are a U.S EM resident!

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By Nicole Battaglioli, MD|2018-05-13T13:38:30-07:00Mar 20, 2017|Wellness, Wellness Think Tank|

Wellness and Resiliency During Residency: Life happens despite your best plans

When I got back home from taking [my board exams], having all these [negative] feelings swirling through my head, I remember driving up and seeing my wife and baby sitting on the porch and suddenly being like, “Isn’t this what life is all about? Is it really about studying for an exam? Is it really about pushing yourself to get triple-boarded or do this or that within medicine? I mean, isn’t THIS what it’s about? Having a wife and a child, a family to call your own, aren’t these the things that are most important that we should value?” After that point, after seeing them on the porch and over the next couple weeks, things really started to change for me.

— Haney Mallemat, MD
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By Arlene Chung, MD|2017-03-01T10:38:55-08:00Feb 20, 2017|Wellness, Wellness Think Tank|

Calling all EM residents: Join the Resident Wellness Consensus Summit!

It seems that the 2017 year is quickly shaping up to be one of grassroots action both politically and now in emergency medicine (EM). On May 15, 2017, we are launching a joint initiative FOR residents BY residents with Essentials of EM, EM Residents’ Association (EMRA), and the Wellness Think Tank. This event will serve to not only help centralize the conversations about wellness and resiliency, but identify some actionable items and build toolkits to help chip away at this towering problem. Deadline to sign up: March 31, 2017. Join us!
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By Michelle Lin, MD|2019-04-04T04:12:45-07:00Jan 30, 2017|Wellness, Wellness Think Tank|

Highlights from Second Annual EM Wellness Week

The second annual Emergency Wellness Week is coming to a close. This week we featured wellness initiatives that you can use to boost wellness in your emergency department, talked about the importance of debriefing, talked to the White Coat Investor about financial wellness, and shared ways to improve wellness in just 30 minutes! Through the collaboration of ALiEM, The Wellness Think Tank, ACEP, CAEP, HippoEM, and CanadiEM- we hope that you have learned some techniques to improve your own wellness and that you will carry some of the techniques with you through the rest of the year!

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By Nicole Battaglioli, MD|2017-01-27T12:34:49-08:00Jan 27, 2017|Wellness, Wellness Think Tank|

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