Residency Wellness

In the Department of Surgery and the General Surgery Residency Program at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, we have created and launched our “Wellbeing Program.” The objectives of our program include:

• Teaching our future surgeons techniques to reduce burnout and to increase resiliency,
• Augmenting traditional surgical training as to develop surgeons who are increasingly competent in the changing world, and 
• Improving patient safety, quality, and satisfaction.

To achieve these goals, the Program encompasses four pillars that characterize the professional and personal values of the residents: physical, mental, social, and professional (Figure below). 

Each pillar has a defined agenda. Residents who desire to take part will have the opportunity to engage in a voluntary study to determine if implementation of the program has an impact on the stated objectives.

Components of the wellbeing program include:

Wellbeing newsletters, published quarterly, and during the pandemic surge, weekly, are available on this site and focus on centering all providers on the "Why" of medicine.

Dr. Michael Winton and Dr. Jennifer LaFemina recently published an invited article on the Wellbeing program at UMass in Worcester Medicine. The article may be found at: https://www.wdms.org/