Development of an Emergency Medicine Wellness Curriculum

Burnout, the triad of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and low personal accomplishment, begins early in medical education and the prevalence continues to increase over time among U.S. physicians. The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) now requires that programs and sponsoring institutions have the same responsibility to address well-being as they do other aspects of resident competence. Yet, there are no studies published in the emergency medicine (EM) literature that discuss the development and institution of a formal wellness curriculum. The authors conducted a needs analysis among EM residents with the aim of creating a multifaceted 12-month wellness curriculum. The needs analysis determined that residents are not comfortable with their knowledge of wellness principles. In response, the authors developed a curriculum by integrating components of published non-EM wellness curricula and online academic wellness programs with commonly accepted domains of wellness. The curriculum was subsequently introduced at five EM residencies. This curriculum represents an example of successful multi-institution collaboration to meet an ACGME Common Program Requirement.