A Guiding Model for Undergraduate Medical Education Well-Being Programs

• Published in: Academic medicine Vol. 99; no. 9; pp. 946 - 952
• Main Authors: Lawrence, Elizabeth C, Sheridan, Chantal, Hurtado, Alicia, Lee, Wei Wei, Lizotte-Waniewski, Michelle, Rea, Margaret, Zehle, Christa
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 01-09-2024
• Subjects: Curriculum; Education, Medical, Undergraduate - methods; Education, Medical, Undergraduate - organization & administration; Humans; Mental Health; Resilience, Psychological; Schools, Medical - organization & administration; Students, Medical - psychology; United States; United States
• ISSN: 1040-2446; 1938-808X; 1938-808X
• DOI: 10.1097/ACM.0000000000005755

Most medical schools have instituted undergraduate medical education (UME) well-being programs in recent years in response to high rates of medical student distress, but there is currently significant variability in the structure of UME well-being programs and limited guidance on how to best structure such programs to achieve success. In this article, the authors, all leaders of medical student well-being programs at their home institutions and members of the Association of American Medical Colleges Group on Student Affairs Committee on Student Affairs Working Group on Medical Student Well-Being between 2019 and 2023 offer guidance to the national community on how best to structure a UME well-being program. They use the current literature and their professional experiences leading well-being efforts at 7 different institutions to review the case for addressing medical student well-being, propose a guiding model, and make recommendations for strategies to implement this model.The proposed guiding model emphasizes the importance of the learning environment and efficiency of learning to medical student well-being, as well as personal resilience. Based on this model, the authors recommend specific and tangible well-being strategies to implement systemic interventions to improve the learning environment, efficiency of learning, and personal resilience, including formalizing the well-being program; hiring qualified, dedicated, and empowered well-being leadership with clear responsibilities; acting as a central hub for resources and as a liaison with mental health care; and establishing robust program evaluation methods.