Well-Being Topics and Resources

What is Well-Being?

Well-being is a continuous process of self-awareness and intentional integration of healthy choices and behaviors into daily routines for the purpose of improving life balance.

During residency this process results in a strengthened sense of engagement, learning, accomplishment. Well-being supports a resident's acquisition of knowledge, clinical performance, and positive attitude. These benefits combine to strengthen resilience through the challenges of training.

Dimensions of well-being include:

Physical
Emotional
Intellectual
Spiritual
Social
Cultural
Occupational
Environmental

Prerequisites to positive well-being include:

Feeling engaged and empowered
Maintaining physical health with rest
Healthy diet
Regular exercise
Achieving a balance of work and time away from work
Being present in the moment
Understanding one's own limitations and those of others

Quality of Life

Burnout: Identifying and preventing the negative impacts of continued stress caused by job/training demands.
Depression: Warning signs and recommendations.
Emotion Shift: How to avoid getting stuck in an upsetting thought or feeling.
Fatigue Management: How to mitigate the effects of sleep deprivation.
Feedback: About feedback and how to handle it.
Neighborhood Watch: Peer support.
Suicide: Physicians are at higher risk for suicidal behavior.
Self-Care Plans: What and Why
Self-Care Plans: Building Yours
Substance Misuse

Managing Your Residency

First Year: Advice for first year residents.
Harassment and Intimidation: Understanding harassment and intimidation.
Pager Management: Suggestions for managing the pager in your practice.
Duty Hours: Information about resident duty hour guidelines.
Early Career, Job Search: I’m nearly done with residency. Now what?
Mentors: About mentorship.
Incident Reporting and Fear of Reporting: Understanding incident reporting and procedures
Multiple Roles: How to handle multiple roles.
Performance Improvement Plan/Remediation: Tips for Success
Dishonesty in Medicine

Scope Newsletter

These brief articles, written by members of the RWBC committee for residents, originally appeared in Scope, an in-house publication for Marshfield Clinic residents and fellows.