WS42 - 02: WHAT CONSTITUTES A WELL-BEING CURRICULUM IN A SURGICAL TRAINING PROGRAM?
Halle Ellison, MD; ASE Graduate Surgical Education Committee
Committee on Graduate Surgical Education

Introduction: Residency is a formative time in the development of professional and personal identity. Trainees develop habits that will be carried into clinical practice and personal life. Unfortunately, burnout rates are higher among surgical trainees (50-70%) than among practicing surgeons (40%) and the general population (28%). Residents also report worse work-life balance, more work-life conflicts and less exercise and hobby participation compared to faculty.

As graduate medical education evolves, educators increasingly recognize the value of maintaining personal well-being during training. Well-being is now a component of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) Common Program Requirements (CPR). As educators develop methods to promote wellness and prevent and combat burnout, the needs of trainees should be kept in mind. The purpose of this workshop is to help surgical educators develop and enhance well-being curricula for surgical learners.

Learning Objectives: By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to:

1. Describe why a well-being curriculum is necessary

2. Outline essential components of a well-being curriculum

3. Use resources and tools to develop and/or incorporate a well-being curriculum at their home institutions

Methods: This will be an interactive session led by the ASE Graduate Surgical Education Committee. Teaching methods include didactic presentation, participant activity, and group discussion. The outline is:

Part 1: Background – Review of trainee burnout, ACGME CPR and resources available (10 minutes)

Part 2: Didactic presentation – Review components of a multi-modal well-being curriculum, examples of existing curricula and resources that can be utilized in the training environment (20 minutes)

Part 4: Group discussion –What constitutes a well-being curriculum? What are the goals of well-being curricula? What are optimal methods to determine/measure effectiveness of the curricula? (50 minutes)                                   

Part 5: Conclusion – Discussion and application for learners - implementation strategies and future directions (10 minutes)                                                       

Conclusion: Developing and implementing a well-being curriculum is necessary in surgical training. An understanding of essential components along with methods to implement and evaluate them may help prevent and combat burnout and improve the well-being of surgical leaners in training and throughout their careers.