Development and Delivery of a Novel Psychologically Informed Resident Wellness Curriculum

Background: Residents in training are at increased risk for burnout, depression, and suicide. Wellness efforts are widespread, but common practices are often transient, ineffective, or dependent on additional time from residents. Purpose: To describe the development, delivery, and reception of a structured wellness curriculum aimed at providing residents psychoeducation, coping skills, and community building opportunities. Methods: Residents PGY1-4 were surveyed on our wellness curriculum. This included how helpful the curriculum was in achieving its goals (providing a space for resident concerns and challenges, teaching coping tools and skills, reducing burnout, strengthening bonds between coresidents), impressions of the curriculum, strengths, and opportunities for improvement. Results were collated. Results: The survey was returned by 21 of 32 residents (66% response rate). Nineteen (95%) of 20 respondents reported a positive impression of the curriculum. All goals of the program were rated somewhat to very helpful, with “providing a space for resident concerns and challenges” and “strengthening bonds between coresidents” being rated as the most beneficial. Greatest strength was “protected time for sessions” and most requested addition was to “add individual check-in sessions.” Conclusions: By partnering with a clinical psychologist, we successfully designed and implemented a wellness curriculum for our ophthalmology residency. This curriculum has been well received by residents. Our curriculum, including our successes and lessons learned, can serve as a model for the development of additional programs as our field works toward improving resident wellness and resiliency.