WHAT IS WELLNESS??

Our Conference aims to explore the definition of wellness and what it means to us as aspiring physicians. We plan on identifying wellness at a personal, school, and community level, exploring what it is to keep ourselves healthy as well as how we can use these same principles to care for our patients.

WELLNESS AT A PERSONAL LEVEL:

It is important to maintain our personal health in order to best serve our patients.
In this group of discussions, we will be looking at the complex issues medical students face on a daily basis including stress management, substance abuse, nutrition and exercise, relationships, work hours, and debt management. You are your most important advocate!

WELLNESS AT A SCHOOL & PROFESSIONAL LEVEL:

We need our schools to support us in our endeavors to keep ourselves healthy and well-informed. We also need to understand our role as medical students, the wellness of our colleagues and our profession. In this group of discussions, we hope to examine how various medical schools address demanding schedules of their students, foster a strong sense of community, provide counseling services, stress the importance of team-building, and protect the health of their students. We will also look at how we develop into effective physicians, build patient rapport, manage problems in the workplace, and work in teams.

WELLNESS AT A COMMUNITY LEVEL:

We all are united in our quest to improve our community at large, providing quality medical care to those who need it and acting in the best interest of our patients. This set of talks will look at what governs wellness at a community level, exploring the idea of a medical home for all patients, the importance of community programming that address public health concerns, patient advocacy, and the need for increased access to health care.

WELLNESS AT A NATIONAL LEVEL:

While making changes at the local level is the key to long term success in improving wellness in our communities, legislation and health care reform are also vital to our goal. Therefore, we have also included a set of talks that discuss current health care legislation, the bureaucracy of the system, and the challenges lawmakers face when address community needs.