Are Good Intentions Good Enough? a Review of Wellness Interventions for Non-Surgical Resident Physicians

Resident-physicians’ well-being is often compromised in light of their high-stress working environment, their evolving professional skills, and work/life balance challenges. As wellbeing is shaped by complex, interconnected influences, effective wellness approaches recognize the need to address personal needs, institutional barriers, and systematic issues. Following the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education requirements, wellness initiatives were incorporated into residency curricula. We aimed to describe initiatives implemented in non-surgical medical residency programs and examine their contribution to improving residents’ wellness.

A scoping-review was conducted, searching wellness interventions implemented in non-surgical residency programs worldwide. Four databases where searched for relevant articles published from 2013 to 2023. Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews guidelines were used to manage the scoping-review.

37 articles were found eligible for review. Most interventions reported in these articles originated in the United States, with a marked increase in 2019. The interventions tackled wellness focusing on various definitions and aspects, thus operationalized wellness in different ways. However, only a few addressed multiple dimensions of wellness. Many interventions were implemented in emergency and family medicine residencies. Only a few initiatives were resident-driven or co-created with residents. Post-interventions’ wellness follow-up was undertaken mostly up to one year following intervention implementation. Not all the programs reviewed reported significant success in improving residents’ wellbeing.

Since wellbeing is multidimensional, interventions aiming to enhance wellbeing need to address several dimensions or encompass a variety of implementations, each focusing on particular components of wellbeing. Wellness interventions effectiveness may be boosted by considering the residents’ evolving needs as they progress in their professional development, the residency program particularities, and the overall socio-cultural context in which the health system operates. Wellbeing programs should be ongoing, driven by residents or co-constructed with them.