Fostering Well-being in the Learning Environment: The Imperative for Medical Educators

Aviad Haramati, PhD

Professor, Division of Integrative Physiology

Dept. of Biochemistry, Molecular and Cellular Biology

Director, Center for Innovation and Leadership in Education (CENTILE)

Co-director, Graduate Program in Integrative Medicine and Health Sciences

Georgetown University School of Medicine

Learning Objectives:

In this presentation, Dr. Haramati will focus on the learning environment and review the key elements that impact on the well-being and resilience of students and faculty in the health professions. Aspects of the learning environment include personal, social, curricular and other institutional components.  The role and impact of faculty well-being will also be discussed. The presentation will also highlight interventions that are being implemented to help learners manage stress, foster empathy and build resilience, with a particular emphasis on the critical role that medical educators can play.

Upon completion of this session, participants will be able to:

·         Describe the scope of medical student stress and burnout and the imperative to model self-care practices

·         Identify the components of the learning environment (personal, social, institutional, physical/virtual) that contribute to student stress and discuss strategies of how to improve those aspects of the learning environment to foster wellbeing of students and faculty

·         Discuss the factors that contribute to faculty stress and innovations aimed at increasing faculty engagement and improving well-being among faculty.