ACOG National Wellness Week

About ACOG National Wellness Week 2023

ACOG and CREOG partner each year to bring awareness to and celebrate the critical importance of physician wellness during Resident Wellness Week. From February 6–10, 2023, we encourage program leaders to lead efforts to improve their residents’ physical and emotional wellness and to consider how the environment and structures within medicine contribute to residents thriving or struggling. By creating wellness opportunities and making structural changes within our residency programs, we hope to not only improve resident wellness but also focus on the well-being of trainees and programs as a whole.

Our 2023 Wellness Week theme is Beyond Wellness Week: Ignite the Well-Being of Your Residency Program. We will provide ideas for activities focused on physical and mental health, suggestions for how to improve the well-being of the communities you serve, and guidance about how to have difficult conversations within your residency program to address systemic causes of burnout. Wellness is not a checkbox—let’s ignite our programs’ passion for educating the next generation of obstetrician–gynecologists in spaces that value their whole selves and foster well-being.

How to Participate

Participating in Wellness Week is easy. Simply plan daily activities to promote physician wellness within your program and share your activities on social media. Use our exciting wellness themes and activities below to guide your participation.

Post on social media using #ACOGBeWell2023 for a chance to be featured on ACOG’s social media channels.

 

Themes and Activities

• Program Well-Being

  Meet with your leadership about barriers to resident well-being in your residency program.

  Sample Activities 

  • Meet with your program stakeholders (program directors, program managers, and residents) to solicit ideas on how to  improve well-being in your program.
  • Identify structures that your program already has in place that support well-being. What might be improved?
  • Consider hosting a lecture or facilitated session (with DIO, ombudsperson) on microaggressions or workplace harassment.
  • Have the residents in your program create an anonymous well-being survey for their fellow residents and review the results together with program leadership (program directors, program managers, and residents) to discuss possible solutions.
• Connection

  Create events to help residents connect with their colleagues.

  Sample Activities

  • Reflect on the ways residents in your program are fostering connections and supporting each other. Facilitate a discussion about how those efforts can be brought to other communities at work (clinic, L&D, etc.) to help build and expand connection beyond the resident family.
  • Work with the residents in your program to plan an event to foster connections amongst residents.
  • Work with the residents in your program to plan an event to foster connections amongst the residents, staff, and faculty.
• Physical and Emotional Well-Being

  Learn what resources are available to support residents’ physical and mental health.

  Sample Activities

  • Formalize a wellness buddy system to build personal and professional accountability within your program.
  • Work with residents, staff, and faculty to create a resource guide to departmental and institutional resources that promote physical and emotional well-being. Make sure this resource list is easily accessible, so your program doesn’t forget about it! Examples include:
    • Counseling resources
    • Employee assistance programs
    • GME mental health resources
    • Wellness buddy program description
    • “Protected time” for residents to attend to personal appointments including MD and Dental visits 
    • Insurance benefits for mental health
    • Adverse event support/debrief resources
    • Electronic medical record tipsheets
    • Financial and loan repayment resources
  • See if your facility has access to “pet therapy” (usually trained dogs who come in to be pet)
  • Take a moment to do something for yourself and/or with your colleagues that benefits your own physical or mental health.
• Environmental Well-Being

  Recycle or prevent waste in your hospital or local community; focus on your physical spaces and updating them to promote wellness during the workday.

  Sample Activities

  • Consider participating in volunteer activities either individually or as a group to benefit the environmental well-being of your community.
  • Clean, rearrange, and decorate your work and break spaces to improve well-being.
  • Have each member of your team bring in something from home to spruce up your break space or clinic.
• Social Justice and Advocacy

  Focus on the communities we serve.

  Sample Activities

  • Create an advocacy curriculum for your program. If your program already has one, consider how it can be improved.
  • Create learning opportunities on advocacy. Consider utilizing:
    • ACOG resources
    • Internal faculty and staff
  • Create an advocacy plan. Come together to discuss ideas for ongoing social justice and advocacy throughout the year.
  • Participate in ACOG advocacy events.
  • Discuss how residents can get involved in ACOG as a Junior Fellow with members of your program.
  • Volunteer and partner with your local community organizations.