Family Medicine Residency Program

The Family Medicine Residency Program is committed to creating a supportive learning environment and culture of wellness for residents that equips them with the skills needed to support their own physical, mental, behavioral and spiritual health. Residency is challenging, but it should not be demeaning or disheartening, or result in physical or mental illness, behavioral disturbances or the development of maladaptive coping skills. Through our efforts, we will promote our future physicians’ sustained joy in their practice as Family Medicine physicians.

Our wellness initiatives include:

Enhancement of peer and social support networks

We recognize the important role peer and social support networks play in improving the learning and working environment of residents. Incoming residents are matched to current residents to help encourage a buddy system as interns manage not only an early physician career but also living in a new city. Membership is provided to the local Medical Society where resident involvement is encouraged to further broaden social networks even outside the immediate hospital network.

Prioritization of mental health

We promote resilience and recognition of burnout as a critical factor in the development of physicians who are better able to maintain and sustain their joy in medical practice. We utilize independent providers to provide required lectures within Wellness to meet program requirements. This allows residents to have access to mental health practitioners separate from the residency program. Residents will have meetings with these individuals and can elect to meet in person or virtually more often as needed. Our program is able to function autonomous of resident involvement and thus the focus will always be on an educational experience, further decreasing burnout.

Residents also have access to mental health resources through their membership with the Medical Society. When faced with challenging circumstances, residents are reminded to focus on their personal character strengths to reaffirm their competency and support the growth of a positive mindset, hope and optimism. The creation of a supportive network among peers, faculty and program staff further promotes the prioritization of mental health.

Creation of supportive faculty mentorship program

All residents are assigned a faculty mentor at the beginning of residency. Faculty mentors are designed to be supportive “coaches” to their resident mentees. Some of their responsibilities include helping residents through challenging circumstances, providing educational guidance and supporting residents on scholarly activities. Faculty mentors are chosen for their professional and life experience and ability to model and mentor healthy life/work balance and continued joy and success in their practice of medicine. Through the faculty mentorship program, residents are guided through their residency and are able to learn and adopt skills from their mentor’s years of experience, equipping them for success in the future. Our faculty are quite engaged in the well-being of our residents.

Resident led entertainment opportunities

After the first six months of training, residents have the opportunity to join the Wellness Committee. This committee is comprised of a resident representative from each year of training and a dedicated faculty member. Once monthly, in lieu of didactics for that week, a recreational activity is planned. Examples of previous activities include pumpkin carving, cookie decorating, group walks and baby showers for expecting residents. Larger activities are also planned throughout the year and have included pool parties, holiday socials, boating and sporting events. Residents will never be required to attend wellness events occurring outside of normal working hours.