Wellness

The WMed Wellness Initiative was launched in 2019 to expand our school’s promotion of well-being and excellence at both an individual and organizational level. Our mission is to support, educate, and inspire all members of the medical school community to nurture mind-body-spirit wellness for themselves, others, and the community as a whole. This focus goes hand-in-hand with WMed’s mission to train competent and compassionate physicians who seek to treat the whole patient. By bringing wellness to the forefront, we help create a healthy climate which supports all members of the WMed community to embody our values.

The wellness of all within the WMed community is paramount to our mission at the medical school. We seek to provide our employees with the resources they need to support work-life balance and give our students and residents/fellows the tools to navigate the rigors of undergraduate and graduate medical education.

As you review our wellness offerings and resources, feel free to reach out with any questions.

For a schedule of weekly WMed Wellness offerings, refer to the Wellness Calendar or check your email inbox for regular updates.

• Medical School (UME) Curriculum and Well-Being in Medicine Distinction Program

  Guiding Principles

  The WMed Wellness Curriculum is guided by the importance of skill development in three areas:

  • Identifying and implementing personal well-being strategies
  • Evaluating strategies & obstacles regarding integration into patient care
  • Demonstrating wellness leadership by contributing toward and promoting a culture of wellness at WMed and in future work/community settings

  
  Across our Undergraduate Medical Education, these principles inform our wellness curricular topics, which are organized into three content areas: 

  • Professional and Personal Well-Being
  • Mind-Body Medicine 
  • Arts/Humanities/Spirituality

  
  We are pleased to announce that beginning in the fall of 2020, students can elect to graduate with a “Distinction in Well-Being in Medicine” by meeting a series of elective requirements. This program is based on our commitment to prepare graduates to be leaders and advocates for creating systemic change to support lifelong physician well-being. For additional information regarding the program requirements, please email wellness@wmed.edu.

  Along with the Distinction Program, medical students learn about these topics throughout their “Profession of Medicine” longitudinal course and within each of their Transition Blocks. Additionally, elective courses (e.g., Mind-Body Medicine, Spirituality and Medicine, Explorations in Professional/Personal Well-Being, Well-Being Promotion and Advocacy, Emotional Awareness and Well-Being Skills in the Clinic) and voluntary co-curricular activities are available.

• GME Wellness Resources

  The ACGME requirements for “Well-Being” are addressed across our Residency Programs. Each residency and fellowship program determines how best to integrate wellness didactics and activities based on their schedule and specialty needs. In addition, the following resources are made available to all residents and programs:

  • The Mayo Well-Being Index, which serves as a confidential screening tool for assessing burnout and well-being, can be accessed anytime. More information can be found by logging in to the WMed Portal.
  • WMed EAP services, including coaching and counseling support offered in person, by phone, or by text (for additional information, refer to the section on EAP/Emergency/Counseling Support Services).
  • Annual WMed fitness/wellness stipend, which can be used toward gym memberships, yoga classes, and other fitness-related activities (contact HR for additional information).
  • Wellness Initiative offerings, including guided meditation, yoga classes,  check-in opportunities, wellness challenges, CE wellness workshops, and the Wellness Noontime Series (these will be recorded throughout this year to make available at your convenience).
  • Culture initiatives
  • Faculty/Resident-led wellness committees
  • MedMates

  
  Feel free to email wellness@wmed.edu with any additional requests or ideas you’d like to partner on to create here at WMed.

• Spirituality and Medicine Symposium Series

  In 2020 and 2021, we offered full-day symposiums featuring keynote speakers Farr Curlin, MD, and Aviad Haramati, PhD, along with local chaplains, community religions leaders, and physicians speaking about how they integrate spirituality into their clinical practice. In addition, we provided information regarding spiritual assessment, an overview of the Fetzer Institute’s study on the state of spirituality in the United States, and an opportunity to experience multiple self-care practices.

  In the fall of 2022, we offered a noontime Spirituality and Medicine Symposium Series including:

  • Kama Mitchell, Founder and CEO, Rootead
  • Chaplains Benjamin Schaefer (Ascension Borgess) and Doug Vardell (Bronson Methodist Hospital)
  • Ron Epstein, MD, author of “Attending: Medicine, Mindfulness, and Humanity”

  
  Recordings to all of these symposium presentations can be found on the WMed Portal (Login Required).

• Wellness Offerings

  Yoga and meditation offerings are available to WMed employees (including residents/fellows) and students.

  Class descriptions are below. Refer to the Wellness calendar for specific dates.

  Class Descriptions

  Offering	Description
  Down Dog Yoga	This 60-minute class offers a balance of energizing and relaxing yoga poses and sequences aimed to meet the needs of those new to yoga and those with previous experience. Please bring a yoga mat. Sessions are also livestreamed and recorded, and posted on Microsoft Teams.
  Mindfulness Meditation	In this 15-minute practice, participants are guided in a mindfulness meditation. We're glad to come to any meeting, class, or gathering. Feel free to reach out and we'll make it happen at a time that is convenient for you.

• Wellness Workshops

  Opportunities to learn more about a variety of wellness topics are available to all members of the WMed community through Wellness Workshops. Additional information regarding dates, times, and registration will be included in the regular Wellness/Culture emails. Be on the lookout for workshop details on the following topics and more:

  Topic	Mindfulness: An Introduction to the Practices and Benefits of Being in the Here and Now
  Description	This workshop offers an overview of the popular practice of mindfulness by considering its importance, benefits, and forms. We’ll explore several mindfulness activities and assist participants in identifying a daily practice to try out.
  Presenters	Karen Horneffer-Ginter, PhD Mark Schauer, MD Patricia Curtis, BSN, MHSA

   

  Topic	Stress Management and Burnout Prevention
  Description	Stress affects us all. You may notice symptoms of stress when disciplining your kids, during busy times at work, when managing your finances, or when coping with a challenging relationship. Stress is everywhere. And while a little stress is OK -- some stress is actually beneficial -- too much stress can wear you down and make you sick, both mentally and physically. This session helps to define what stress is, estimate your stress level through the use of a quick self-assessment, and then offers techniques to reduce, relieve, and manage the stress level in your life.
  Presenters	Rich Daudert, MA, and Karen Horneffer-Ginter, PhD

   

  Topic	Maximizing Resilience, Well-Being and Happiness: Actions We Can Take to Better Our Lives
  Description	This workshop provides an opportunity to take a step back and reflect on various dimension of your well-being - what you most value and how you spend your time—in order to identify actions you can take to improve your mind-body-spirit, resilience, and wellness. We’ll also draw on key principles from the positive psychology field to explore how they can help maximize our self-care activities.
  Presenter	Karen Horneffer-Ginter, PhD

   

  Topic	Practicing Gratitude: The Why and How of Giving Thanks and What to Do When You're Just Not Feeling It
  Description	This workshop offers an overview of the popular practice of mindfulness by considering its importance, benefits, and forms. We’ll explore several mindfulness activities and assist participants in identifying a daily practice to try out.
  Presenter	Karen Horneffer-Ginter, PhD

• Wellness Noontime Series

  Opportunities to learn more about a variety of wellness topics are available to all members of the WMed community through Wellness Noontime events. MEDU credit/Well-Being in Medicine Distinction Credit is available for students. A list of the topics we’ve featured is below. Visit the WMed Portal (Login Required) for recordings and details regarding upcoming presentations.

  Other featured topics have included:

  • Your WMed Benefits: Resources You Don't Want to Overlook (Brooke Kolodzieczyk, WMed Human Resources)
  • Mindfulness: The What, Why, and How of Starting a Practice Today (Schauer & Horneffer-Ginter)
  • Innovative Approaches to Workplace Wellness - or How a Hospital Came to Open a Grocery Store (Rob Oakleaf and Grant Fletcher, Bronson Methodist Hospital)
  • Food as Medicine: The Vision of the KVCC Community Culinary & Nutrition Program (Lizzie Luchsinger)
  • What in the World is Ayurveda? An Introduction to Yoga's Sister Tradition of Lifestyle and Nutritional Well-Being (Kara Aubin)
  • The Art of Healing: A Visual Journey into the Transformative Power of Visual Art Across Patient Populations (Gay Walker)
  • Empower: Why We Need Heroes Who Look Like Us (Aubrey Jewel Rodgers)
  • Time Management Perspectives in the Health Care Encounter (Nancy Radcliff)
  • *Musical Artist Series: Presented in Collaboration with The Gilmore (Ronnie Cung)
  • *Get Moving: Exercise Encouragements for Ourselves and Our Patients (Robert Baker, MD)
  • *Healthy Eating Tips for Ourselves and Our Patients: Takeaways from Functional Medicine (Ramona Wallace, DO)
  • Healing Art from Syrian Refugee Campus in Jordan: A Glimpse into a Frontline Intervention with Providers and Refugees (Tom Holmes, PhD)
  • *How to Get a Good Sleep: Sleep Hygiene for Ourselves and Our Patients (Alice Doe, MD)
  • COVID-19 Ethics: A conversation about the evolving ethical considerations of the pandemic (Parker Crutchfield, PhD)
  • Sports Performance, Medicine, and Resilience: What Athletes Can Teach Us (Zeljka Vidic, PhD; Donovan Roy, EdD)
  • Applying Functional Medicine in clinical practice by looking or the "root cause" (Ramona Wallace, DO)
  • The Curious Modern Story of Psychedelics as Therapeutics (Mark Goetting, MD and Alicia Aleardi, MD)
  • The Curious Recent History of Psychedelics as Therapeutics (Part 2): Existential Anxiety (Mark Goetting, MD)
  • An introduction to cognitive behavior therapy for insomnia (Alice Doe, MD)
  • Art of Empowerment (Aubrey Jewel Rodgers, MA)
  • Performance Psychology: Take-aways for student learning and clinical success (Zeljka Vidic, PhD)
  • Self-Confidence, Grit, and Perseverance (Ivan Joseph, PhD)
  • Financial Wellness: Budgeting with today's technology (Katelyn Huntington from Consumers Credit Union)
  • Creating an emotion regulation toolkit & engaging your stress-o-meter (Chris Haymaker, PhD)

  
  *Annual presentation

• EAP/Emergency/Counseling and Support Services

  Employee Assistance Program

  Ulliance Life Advisor Consultants are available 24/7

  This a confidential and voluntary support service that is fully accessible to students, residents/fellows, faculty, and staff and immediate household members to help find solutions to life’s challenges. Support is provided in a manner that is best suited to individual preferences, comfort level, and lifestyle.

  Ulliance is completely confidential within the limits of the law. No one at the medical school will know that you have used the program unless you choose to share that information. There is no cost to use Ulliance.

  Ulliance has a wide range of services including:

  • Counseling services: This is a service to help provide short term solutions that may involve work-life issues such as stress, major life transitions, relationship issues, substance abuse, grief/loss and overwhelming emotions. This is confidential and can be face-to-face or phone sessions with a licensed counselor.  
  • Coaching services: To help motivate and support your work-life goals such as education, career advancement, financial or saving goals, and self-improvement goals.
  • Legal support services provide telephone or in-person consultation with attorneys to address legal questions surrounding divorce, custody, adoption, real estate, debt, bankruptcy, landlord/tenant issues, and more.
  • Financial support services provide consultation with financial professionals to address financial questions surrounding budgeting, debt management, tax issues, and more.
  • Schedule an appointment for you to see a local Ulliance EAP Counselor – Close to where you live or work at no charge to you or your covered dependents.

  These are confidential services that can be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Individuals may access Ulliance services by calling 800.448.8326 or online at www.LifeAdvisor.com and entering the following credentials to login:

  • Name of Organization: WMed
  • City of Organization: Kalamazoo

  
  EAP Working Advantage Discount Program

  Discounts can range from sporting events, to hotels, and to even apps on your phone.  To explore more fun go sign up at www.WorkingAdvantage.com/Ulliance

  Information about the EAP is provided to students at matriculation and to employees upon employment. 

  Emergency Mental Health Services 

  For emergency behavioral and mental health crises, employees and students can access the Gryphon Place 24‑hour community HelpLine at 269.381.4357.

  Counseling and Support Services

  Additional information regarding counseling and support services can be found by logging in to the WMed Portal (Login required).

• Burnout and Suicide Prevention

  WMed Suicide Prevention and Well-Being Promotion Symposium

  The 2023 Symposium will be taking place on Friday, September 15. Further information and registration details will be coming this summer. See below for details regarding last year’s Symposium.
   

  

  
  In response to increasing concerns about the risk of burnout within the field of medicine, many national organizations have developed resources for students, residents, and professionals at all stages of their career. The following links contain assessment tools and information to offer support if you’re struggling yourself or concerned about colleagues or loved ones. 

  Locally, WMed offers mental health resources to those in need, along with Bronson Hospital’s 24/7 confidential Physician Help Line at 269.341.6999.   

  Survey Measures

  Well-being Index (quick, free, anonymous and linked to resources): mywellbeingindex.org

  Burnout Prevention Resources

  AMA Steps Forward: Preventing Physician Burnout: https://www.stepsforward.org/modules/physician-burnout

  AMA Steps Forward: Preventing Resident/Fellow Burnout: https://www.stepsforward.org/modules/physician-wellness

  Medscape Physician Burnout Course: https://www.medscape.com/courses/business/100012?src=wnl_pba_180922_mscpmrk_pbanew&uac=232252HR&impID=1746233&faf=1

  ACGME physician well-being resources: https://www.acgme.org/What-We-Do/Initiatives/Physician-Well-Being/Resources

  JED Foundation: https://www.jedfoundation.org/what-we-do/teens-young-adults/

  Resiliency Resources

  VIA Strengths Survey: https://www.viacharacter.org/www/Character-Strengths-Survey

  National Academy of Medicine Action Collaborative on Physician Well-Being and Resilience: https://nam.edu/initiatives/clinician-resilience-and-well-being/

  AMA Steps Forward: Joy in Medicine for Physicians: https://www.stepsforward.org/modules/joy-in-medicine

  AMA Steps Forward: Physician Resilience: https://www.stepsforward.org/modules/improving-physician-resilience

  Physicians Then and Now: Research by Alumni Faculty Dr. Dunstone

  Dr. Dunstone discusses his 30-year follow up to one of the first research projects conducted on the topic of “provider satisfaction,” right here in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Click HERE to watch a brief interview of Dr. Dunstone, which was presented at the 2021 International Conference on Physician Health (ICPH).

• Wellness/Culture Ambassadors

  Our Wellness/Culture Ambassador Initiative started back in 2019 with a series of trainings in partnership with the Fetzer Institute. In order to foster leadership and engagement, these trainings covered key concepts, strategies, and resources across 15 facets of mind-body-spirit wellness:

  Physical activity/Nature Nutrition/Functional Medicine Sleep Hygiene  Stress-Management and Burnout Prevention Character Strengths Resilience Internal Dynamics Wellness Assessment

  Mindfulness Spirituality & Meaning/Purpose Medical Humanism Multiculturalism and Health Equity Complexity Theory & Systems Dynamics Wellness Leadership

  
  For information about our current Wellness/Culture Ambassador opportunities, go to the WMed Portal (Login Required) or email culture@wmed.edu to be added to our monthly Ambassador email communications.