Wellness

Resident wellness is absolutely critical for optimal patient care, team collaboration, and residents’ learning and growth as physicians. While our program coordinates a number of “extras” to help promote resident connection and wellbeing, even more importantly, we work hard to foster the following fundamental aspects of training that help residents thrive.

• Residents must feel supported by their program. This includes setting reasonable workload expectations, truly prioritizing learning, consistently treating residents fairly and with kindness and respect, and ensuring they feel heard when they raise concerns and have a voice in how the program runs.
• Residents must feel supported by the people. This includes respecting and enjoying the people they work with and trusting that co-residents and faculty will look out for their best interests. They must believe that their colleagues are looking to support and teach them, rather than compete with them or push work onto them. They should not feel afraid to speak up to anyone when they have concerns or suggestions of any type. And ideally, they also have fun being with their colleagues.
• Residents must believe in the importance and value of the work they do. This includes keeping sight of the reasons they chose a career in medicine and believing that they are helping their patients.

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Wellness Initiatives and Events

In addition to these core principles, our residency supports a number of activities and provides resources to promote resident well-being and foster connection and community within our program.

Resident Wellness Committee

Our Resident Wellness Committee is open to all interested residents. The group works collaboratively with our Assistant Program Director for Communication Coaching and Wellness, Dr. Andrea Garroway, our Program Coordinators, and other program leaders to develop new initiatives and plan recurring activities and “special” program-sponsored events.

Peer Mentoring

A new development for the 2024-25 academic year has been the following two peer mentoring and support initiatives:

• Peer Mentors Program: This initiative, coordinated by the Resident Wellness Committee, links incoming PGY1s with current PGY2s and PGY3s with similar interests. The senior residents provide advice to ease the transition to internship and help support PGY1s as they navigate their academic and professional development journey and explore career options during intern year and beyond.
• Resident Connect: This is a pilot program for the PGY1 class that utilizes peer-to-peer interactions to build connections, shared purpose, and collective group skills to manage career and personal challenges in residency. This program was adopted from the Wingman-Connect Program for Air Force personnel-in-training, which demonstrated increased bonding between classmates and reduced depression symptoms, suicidal ideation, and occupational problems compared to standard stress management control training.

Recurring Activities

• Ambulatory Happy Hours: The program sponsors regular happy hours with food and drink for all of the ambulatory block residents and their significant others at a local restaurant near the clinics.
• “Happy Breakfasts”: At the end of each night float block, the program sends the night float resident team out for breakfast together at a breakfast spot of their choosing.
• Wellness Noon Conference: These monthly sessions cover a range of topics including mindfulness, narrative medicine, growth mindset, financial wellness, resiliency, and “fun” topics and activities.
• Monthly Business Meetings: These noontime sessions are a forum for residents to learn about and provide input on decisions and challenges  facing the program, and share any concerns, questions, or ideas they have. This is also a time to celebrate our residents’ achievements and birthdays for the month.
• Seasonal Sports Teams: The program sponsors resident participation in local sports leagues. Recent residents have organized volleyball and kickball teams that all residents are invited to join.

Special Events

Beyond the above recurring events each month or ambulatory block, we have a number of “special events” throughout the year. These include:

• New intern orientation: We take this very seriously and strive to create programming that helps fosters intern connections to each other and within the program and helps introduce both our medical center and local Rochester community. Highlights include the dinner with the program leaders and chief residents, a group scavenger hunt, Advisor Luncheon, and the “Fare-Thee-Welcome” picnic on the shore of Lake Ontario with other residents in the program and core teaching faculty.
• Intern Retreat: This annual highlight is held every September at Letchworth Park, which has been nicknamed the “Grand Canyon of the East.” All interns have clinical duties covered so they can spend the day connecting, sharing wellness and coping strategies, and participating in fun activities of their choosing, including yoga, whitewater rafting, hiking along the gorge and waterfalls, mountain biking, golfing at a local course, or relaxing with games, crafts, or a good book. Some interns are even rumored to camp in Letchworth the night before.
• Annual Holiday Party: Every January residents celebrate the holiday season and start of the new year with a night of food, fun, and festivities.
• Resident Appreciation Days: Events are typically spread out over a few weeks in late February/early March, and include a special breakfast served by program leadership and an afternoon “ice cream social.”
• Match Day Celebration: This annual event allows us to celebrate our match and thank the residents for their critical role in recruitment. All newly matched interns are invited to attend if their schedule allows.
• R2 Dinner: This spring event brings all of our second-year residents together for a night of fine dining and fun.
• Becoming an R2 Day: This event in late May/early June brings the intern class together to help prepare them for the transition to “senior resident” roles.
• R3 Graduation Banquet: This formal ceremony and reception brings our graduating residents, their families, and their favorite faculty members together to celebrate their successful completion of residency. The event is typically held annually at either the George Eastman House or the Memorial Art Gallery.
• Annual Resident-Faculty Jeopardy Grand Rounds: Every year a team of graduating R3s competes with a faculty team to see who will win the coveted jeopardy prize. Teams dress according to resident-selected themes every year (e.g., superheroes vs villains). This contest is followed by the Department of Medicine Annual Awards Ceremony.
• Additional Program Wide Social Events: The program typically sponsors additional social events throughout the year, such as picnics at local parks, fall apple picking, sledding, and Redwings baseball games, to name a few….

Wellness Resources

• Primary Care: We strongly encourage all residents to get connected with a local primary care doctor to help manage acute and chronic illness during training. Residents can find a PCP through University Health Services or by using our Primary Care Network’s PCP phone line for residents and fellows.
• Preventative Care: Resident can obtain Flu and COVID vaccines free of charge at onsite vaccine clinics, the employee pharmacy, or on many medical units during the fall.
• UR Medicine Employee Assistance Program (EAP) is a free service that provides employees with confidential guidance and support for addressing a variety of personal and work-related challenges. Residents can access care in-person or via secure video conference.
• Behavioral Health Partners (BHP) is a mental health resource for employees enrolled in a University Health Care Plan. They offer a range of therapies for mental health concerns including anxiety, stress, and depression. They can provide psychotherapy, prescribe medications, or consult with your primary care physician to assist with medication management. Both in-person and telehealth visits are available.

Secure Space for Telehealth Appointments: Residents can reserve our “Heart Center Zoom Room” for confidential telehealth appointments, interviews, or other important meetings. The Department of Medicine also has a large, shared space with private workrooms that residents can reserve through our residency program office for appointments, interviews, private work, or study space.