A Guiding Model for Undergraduate Medical Education Well-Being Programs

Abstract

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 wellbeing 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 wellbeing 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.