No abstract

Stress and burnout among surgeons have received increasing attention in recent years. 1 In response, our department created a wellness program, Balance in Life, to address the physical, psychological, social, and professional needs of surgical trainees. 2 Program initiatives include a 24-hour refrigerator stocked with snacks, a peer mentorship program, and annual team-building retreats. Another central component is the existence of an innovative weekly facilitated-group intervention.The effectiveness of group therapy has been documented in a range of therapeutic, motivational, and organizational settings. 3 Within our program, categorical surgical residents are assigned to 90-minute group sessions that are facilitated by a licensed clinical psychologist with expertise in working with high-performance teams and delivering evidence-based interventions. Time is protected for each resident class to attend the group session once every 6 weeks throughout their training. A typical session format includes greeting/agenda setting (15 minutes), curriculum topic review (30 minutes), open discussion (30 minutes), and mindfulness exercises (15 minutes).Group participants are encouraged to share stressors with peers and to work together to formulate coping strategies. In addition to feeling validated and supported by peers, residents are equipped with a toolkit of skills designed to positively influence work relationships, system operations, and patient outcomes. The curriculum was created to address issues relevant to all trainees and is tailored toward postgraduate year (Box). Statements made by participants are confidential, but issues may be shared with the program director with the consent of group members.

Exercise and sport psychology encompasses the application of the theory, research, and practice found within the discipline of psychology to behavior in exercise and sport. Some in our field would prefer to broaden our name to performance psychology because our work encompasses not only individuals who engage in exercise and sport (and almost any type of physical activity), but other areas of human endeavor which encompass performance, such as the performing arts (e.g., dance, theater, music), medicine (especially surgery), the military (especially special forces operations), astronautics, and so on. These are all areas where one's performance at a given moment matters, in some cases having life or death implications.