Wellness On The Wards

The University of Minnesota Chapter of GHHS dedicates 45 minutes at each of our monthly meetings to discuss a topic relevant to humanism in medicine.

This month we discussed the ways in which we have seen student and physician wellness maintained while on clinical rotations.

Summary: The 2015 Medscape Physician Lifestyle Survey reported that 46% of physicians reported burnout, up from 39.8% in 2013. The emphasis on wellness varies from rotation to rotation, and various students approach personal wellness differently. We were surprised to find that around 40% of our medical school class is experiencing some form of mental illness - most commonly depression and anxiety - and that for many of these students the mental illness arose during medical school. The University of Minnesota Medical School has a very active wellness committee and our school administration does conduct surveys to assess student support. However, we still feel that this is an important issue that needs to be better highlighted and addressed. Through our conversations we came up with many ideas of how to promote wellness while on clinical rotations.

Here are some ideas to put into practice on your own rotations!

• The basics: exercise, eat healthy, sleep.

• On one rotation, I took a 20 minute lunch break away from my computer, preferably outside - I was able to come back after lunch refreshed and ready to learn.

• Three Good Things: at the end of each day write down three good things that happened today in your work or personal life (statistically proven to increase happiness and decrease depressive symptoms).

• One of the attendings on the medicine service brought in terrarium-making supplies for one of our weekend call days. It was so out of the blue and unique. A little DIYing was a really fun way to break up the afternoon and relax with the team. My terrarium is still growing strong in my window at home.

• The chief resident on the family medicine inpatient service brought a Tibetan singing bowl into the work room to use during rounds. She would ask the students, residents, and staff to gather around the table and close our eyes. She would ring the side of the bowl and the team would sit quietly for the 30 seconds or so of ringing. I'm not sure what others did, but I used that time to just meditate on the sound and give my mind a break from the swirling thoughts about all of the work I needed to do that day. And when the ringing stopped, we would continue on with our rounds. It was such a simple thing, but it stuck with me as "real life" wellness in action.

• Team snacks and breakfast/dinner: it's nice to take a moment to have a meal or snack together and check in. People brining food in to share means people care about your happiness and well being throughout the day!

• I had a senior resident that had us recite 3 good things from the day before we left for home. It added a positive bonding experience to the rotation.

• "Win of the Day" on the white board: We would stop what we were doing and think of something good that happened (no matter how small - free cookies, good lunch, etc.) even on the worst days! It provided an outlet to build your teammates up and recognize them for being rockstars. It was a small gesture, but it did help!