An environmental scan of wellness initiatives and programs at Canadian academic emergency medicine programs: How far have we come?

An Assessment of Residency Wellness Programming in Urology Training Programs

OBJECTIVES

To assess the prevalence and characteristics of wellness programming provided in urology residency programs (URPs).

METHODS

Websites for all 145 ACGME-accredited URPs in the United States were assessed for mention of "wellness" or "well-being." Program directors and/or coordinators for each URP were e-mailed asking about the presence of formal wellness programming, informal wellness activities, and wellness programming offered by the institution or graduate medical education (GME). A description of what wellness programming was offered was also requested.

RESULTS

Assessment of program websites found that 29 programs (20%) mentioned "wellness" or "well-being." Representatives from 58 URPs (40%) responded to the survey, with 38 programs (65.5%) indicating formal wellness programming and 54 programs (93.1%) indicating informal wellness programming. Compilation of data from e-mail responses and information from program websites revealed that 112 URPs (77.2%) offer residents wellness resources from the institution or GME, 58 (40%) provide wellness events for residents, and 29 (20%) provide wellness lectures to residents. Other metrics noted included presence of wellness committees, scheduled check-ins from program directors/faculty, and conferences for open resident discussion of issues.

CONCLUSIONS

Given that wellness programming is a requirement for ACGME, it is unsurprising that most programs have institutional wellness programming available. Wellness programing from individual URPs appears limited, showing that there is significant room for improvement.