Wellness

Dr. Karen Horneffer-Ginter
Karen Horneffer-Ginter, PhD
Associate Dean for Culture and Chief Wellness Officer

The WMed Wellness Initiative was launched in 2019 to expand our school’s promotion of well-being and excellence at both an individual and organizational level. Our mission is to support, educate, and inspire all members of the medical school community to nurture mind-body-spirit wellness for themselves, others, and the community as a whole. This focus goes hand-in-hand with WMed’s mission to train competent and compassionate physicians who seek to treat the whole patient. By bringing wellness to the forefront, we help create a healthy climate which supports all members of the WMed community to embody our values.

WMed Wellness Initiative


The wellness of all within the WMed community is paramount to our mission at the medical school. We seek to provide our employees with the resources they need to support work-life balance and give our students and residents/fellows the tools to navigate the rigors of undergraduate and graduate medical education.

As you review our wellness offerings and resources, feel free to reach out with any questions.

For a schedule of weekly WMed Wellness offerings, refer to the Wellness Calendar or check your email inbox for regular updates.

Looking for some tips to de-stress? Check out our Stress Management Tips booklet for students, as well as this resource with wellness activities and nutritious recipes to cook, pulled together by two of our Well-Being in Medicine Distinction Program students. These resources are also available on the WMed Portal (Login Required)!

WMed Wellness Pie

 

  • Medical School (UME) Curriculum and Well-Being in Medicine Distinction Program

    Guiding Principles

    The WMed Wellness Curriculum is guided by the importance of skill development in three areas:

    • Identifying and implementing personal well-being strategies
    • Evaluating strategies & obstacles regarding integration into patient care
    • Demonstrating wellness leadership by contributing toward and promoting a culture of wellness at WMed and in future work/community settings


    Across our Undergraduate Medical Education, these principles inform our wellness curricular topics, which are organized into three content areas: 

    • Professional and Personal Well-Being
    • Mind-Body Medicine 
    • Arts/Humanities/Spirituality


    We are pleased to announce that beginning in the fall of 2020, students can elect to graduate with a “Distinction in Well-Being in Medicine” by meeting a series of elective requirements. This program is based on our commitment to prepare graduates to be leaders and advocates for creating systemic change to support lifelong physician well-being. For additional information regarding the program requirements, please email wellness@wmed.edu.

    Along with the Distinction Program, medical students learn about these topics throughout their “Profession of Medicine” longitudinal course and within each of their Transition Blocks. Additionally, elective courses (e.g., Mind-Body Medicine, Spirituality and Medicine, Explorations in Professional/Personal Well-Being, Well-Being Promotion and Advocacy, Emotional Awareness and Well-Being Skills in the Clinic) and voluntary co-curricular activities are available.

  • GME Wellness Resources

    The ACGME requirements for “Well-Being” are addressed across our Residency Programs. Each residency and fellowship program determines how best to integrate wellness didactics and activities based on their schedule and specialty needs. In addition, the following resources are made available to all residents and programs:

    • The Mayo Well-Being Index, which serves as a confidential screening tool for assessing burnout and well-being, can be accessed anytime. More information can be found by logging in to the WMed Portal.
    • WMed EAP services, including coaching and counseling support offered in person, by phone, or by text (for additional information, refer to the section on EAP/Emergency/Counseling Support Services).
    • Annual WMed fitness/wellness stipend, which can be used toward gym memberships, yoga classes, and other fitness-related activities (contact HR for additional information).
    • Wellness Initiative offerings, including guided meditation, yoga classes,  check-in opportunities, wellness challenges, CE wellness workshops, and the Wellness Noontime Series (these will be recorded throughout this year to make available at your convenience).
    • Culture initiatives
    • Faculty/Resident-led wellness committees
    • MedMates


    Feel free to email wellness@wmed.edu with any additional requests or ideas you’d like to partner on to create here at WMed.

  • Spirituality and Medicine Symposium Series

    In 2020 and 2021, we offered full-day symposiums featuring keynote speakers Farr Curlin, MD, and Aviad Haramati, PhD, along with local chaplains, community religions leaders, and physicians speaking about how they integrate spirituality into their clinical practice. In addition, we provided information regarding spiritual assessment, an overview of the Fetzer Institute’s study on the state of spirituality in the United States, and an opportunity to experience multiple self-care practices.

    In the fall of 2022, we offered a noontime Spirituality and Medicine Symposium Series including:

    • Kama Mitchell, Founder and CEO, Rootead
    • Chaplains Benjamin Schaefer (Ascension Borgess) and Doug Vardell (Bronson Methodist Hospital)
    • Ron Epstein, MD, author of “Attending: Medicine, Mindfulness, and Humanity”


    Recordings to all of these symposium presentations can be found on the WMed Portal (Login Required).

  • Wellness Offerings

    Yoga and meditation offerings are available to WMed employees (including residents/fellows) and students.

    Class descriptions are below. Refer to the Wellness calendar for specific dates.

    Class Descriptions

    Offering Description
    Down Dog Yoga This 60-minute class offers a balance of energizing and relaxing yoga poses and sequences aimed to meet the needs of those new to yoga and those with previous experience. Please bring a yoga mat. Sessions are also livestreamed and recorded, and posted on Microsoft Teams.
    Mindfulness Meditation In this 15-minute practice, participants are guided in a mindfulness meditation. We're glad to come to any meeting, class, or gathering. Feel free to reach out and we'll make it happen at a time that is convenient for you.
  • Wellness Workshops

    Opportunities to learn more about a variety of wellness topics are available to all members of the WMed community through Wellness Workshops. Additional information regarding dates, times, and registration will be included in the regular Wellness/Culture emails. Be on the lookout for workshop details on the following topics and more:

    Topic Mindfulness: An Introduction to the Practices and Benefits of Being in the Here and Now
    Description This workshop offers an overview of the popular practice of mindfulness by considering its importance, benefits, and forms. We’ll explore several mindfulness activities and assist participants in identifying a daily practice to try out.  
    Presenters

    Karen Horneffer-Ginter, PhD
    Mark Schauer, MD
    Patricia Curtis, BSN, MHSA

     

    Topic Stress Management and Burnout Prevention
    Description

    Stress affects us all. You may notice symptoms of stress when disciplining your kids, during busy times at work, when managing your finances, or when coping with a challenging relationship. Stress is everywhere. And while a little stress is OK -- some stress is actually beneficial -- too much stress can wear you down and make you sick, both mentally and physically. This session helps to define what stress is, estimate your stress level through the use of a quick self-assessment, and then offers techniques to reduce, relieve, and manage the stress level in your life.

    Presenters

    Rich Daudert, MA, and Karen Horneffer-Ginter, PhD

     

    Topic Maximizing Resilience, Well-Being and Happiness: Actions We Can Take to Better Our Lives
    Description

    This workshop provides an opportunity to take a step back and reflect on various dimension of your well-being - what you most value and how you spend your time—in order to identify actions you can take to improve your mind-body-spirit, resilience, and wellness. We’ll also draw on key principles from the positive psychology field to explore how they can help maximize our self-care activities. 

    Presenter Karen Horneffer-Ginter, PhD

     

    Topic Practicing Gratitude: The Why and How of Giving Thanks and What to Do When You're Just Not Feeling It
    Description

    This workshop offers an overview of the popular practice of mindfulness by considering its importance, benefits, and forms. We’ll explore several mindfulness activities and assist participants in identifying a daily practice to try out.  

    Presenter Karen Horneffer-Ginter, PhD
  • Wellness Noontime Series

    Opportunities to learn more about a variety of wellness topics are available to all members of the WMed community through Wellness Noontime events. MEDU credit/Well-Being in Medicine Distinction Credit is available for students. A list of the topics we’ve featured is below. Visit the WMed Portal (Login Required) for recordings and details regarding upcoming presentations.

    Other featured topics have included:
    • Your WMed Benefits: Resources You Don't Want to Overlook (Brooke Kolodzieczyk, WMed Human Resources)
    • Mindfulness: The What, Why, and How of Starting a Practice Today (Schauer & Horneffer-Ginter)
    • Innovative Approaches to Workplace Wellness - or How a Hospital Came to Open a Grocery Store (Rob Oakleaf and Grant Fletcher, Bronson Methodist Hospital)
    • Food as Medicine: The Vision of the KVCC Community Culinary & Nutrition Program (Lizzie Luchsinger)
    • What in the World is Ayurveda? An Introduction to Yoga's Sister Tradition of Lifestyle and Nutritional Well-Being (Kara Aubin)
    • The Art of Healing: A Visual Journey into the Transformative Power of Visual Art Across Patient Populations (Gay Walker)
    • Empower: Why We Need Heroes Who Look Like Us (Aubrey Jewel Rodgers)
    • Time Management Perspectives in the Health Care Encounter (Nancy Radcliff)
    • *Musical Artist Series: Presented in Collaboration with The Gilmore (Ronnie Cung)
    • *Get Moving: Exercise Encouragements for Ourselves and Our Patients (Robert Baker, MD)
    • *Healthy Eating Tips for Ourselves and Our Patients: Takeaways from Functional Medicine (Ramona Wallace, DO)
    • Healing Art from Syrian Refugee Campus in Jordan: A Glimpse into a Frontline Intervention with Providers and Refugees (Tom Holmes, PhD)
    • *How to Get a Good Sleep: Sleep Hygiene for Ourselves and Our Patients (Alice Doe, MD)
    • COVID-19 Ethics: A conversation about the evolving ethical considerations of the pandemic (Parker Crutchfield, PhD)
    • Sports Performance, Medicine, and Resilience: What Athletes Can Teach Us (Zeljka Vidic, PhD; Donovan Roy, EdD)
    • Applying Functional Medicine in clinical practice by looking or the "root cause" (Ramona Wallace, DO)
    • The Curious Modern Story of Psychedelics as Therapeutics (Mark Goetting, MD and Alicia Aleardi, MD)
    • The Curious Recent History of Psychedelics as Therapeutics (Part 2): Existential Anxiety (Mark Goetting, MD)
    • An introduction to cognitive behavior therapy for insomnia (Alice Doe, MD)
    • Art of Empowerment (Aubrey Jewel Rodgers, MA)
    • Performance Psychology: Take-aways for student learning and clinical success (Zeljka Vidic, PhD)
    • Self-Confidence, Grit, and Perseverance (Ivan Joseph, PhD)
    • Financial Wellness: Budgeting with today's technology (Katelyn Huntington from Consumers Credit Union)
    • Creating an emotion regulation toolkit & engaging your stress-o-meter (Chris Haymaker, PhD)


    *Annual presentation

  • EAP/Emergency/Counseling and Support Services

    Employee Assistance Program

    Ulliance Life Advisor Consultants are available 24/7. For more information about the Employee Assistance Program at WMed, please visit the EAP page on the WMed Portal (Login required). 

    Emergency Mental Health Services 

    For emergency behavioral and mental health crises, employees and students can access the Gryphon Place 24‑hour community HelpLine at 269.381.4357.

    Counseling and Support Services

    Additional information regarding counseling and support services can be found by logging in to the WMed Portal (Login required).

  • Burnout and Suicide Prevention

    WMed Suicide Prevention and Well-Being Promotion Symposium

    The 2024 Symposium will be taking place on Thursday, September 5, 2024. Further information and registration details will be coming this summer. See below for details regarding last year’s Symposium.

    WMed Suicide Prevention and Well-Being Promotion Symposium - September 2023WMed Suicide Prevention and Well-Being Promotion Symposium - September 2023


    Additional Resources

    In response to increasing concerns about the risk of burnout within the field of medicine, many national organizations have developed resources for students, residents, and professionals at all stages of their career. The following links contain assessment tools and information to offer support if you’re struggling yourself or concerned about colleagues or loved ones. 

    Locally, WMed offers mental health resources to those in need, along with Bronson Hospital’s 24/7 confidential Physician Help Line at 269.341.6999.   

    Survey Measures

    Well-being Index (quick, free, anonymous and linked to resources): mywellbeingindex.org

    Burnout Prevention Resources

    AMA Steps Forward: Preventing Physician Burnout: https://www.stepsforward.org/modules/physician-burnout

    AMA Steps Forward: Preventing Resident/Fellow Burnout: https://www.stepsforward.org/modules/physician-wellness

    Medscape Physician Burnout Course: https://www.medscape.com/courses/business/100012?src=wnl_pba_180922_mscpmrk_pbanew&uac=232252HR&impID=1746233&faf=1

    ACGME physician well-being resources: https://www.acgme.org/What-We-Do/Initiatives/Physician-Well-Being/Resources

    JED Foundation: https://www.jedfoundation.org/what-we-do/teens-young-adults/

    Resiliency Resources

    VIA Strengths Survey: https://www.viacharacter.org/www/Character-Strengths-Survey

    National Academy of Medicine Action Collaborative on Physician Well-Being and Resilience: https://nam.edu/initiatives/clinician-resilience-and-well-being/

    AMA Steps Forward: Joy in Medicine for Physicians: https://www.stepsforward.org/modules/joy-in-medicine

    AMA Steps Forward: Physician Resilience: https://www.stepsforward.org/modules/improving-physician-resilience

    Physicians Then and Now: Research by Alumni Faculty Dr. Dunstone

    Dr. Dunstone discusses his 30-year follow up to one of the first research projects conducted on the topic of “provider satisfaction,” right here in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Click here to watch a brief interview of Dr. Dunstone, which was presented at the 2021 International Conference on Physician Health (ICPH).

  • Wellness/Culture Ambassadors

    Our Wellness/Culture Ambassador Initiative started back in 2019 with a series of trainings in partnership with the Fetzer Institute. In order to foster leadership and engagement, these trainings covered key concepts, strategies, and resources across 15 facets of mind-body-spirit wellness:

    • Physical activity/Nature
    • Nutrition/Functional Medicine
    • Sleep Hygiene 
    • Stress-Management and Burnout Prevention
    • Character Strengths
    • Resilience
    • Internal Dynamics
    • Wellness Assessment
    • Mindfulness
    • Spirituality & Meaning/Purpose
    • Medical Humanism
    • Multiculturalism and Health Equity
    • Complexity Theory & Systems Dynamics
    • Wellness Leadership 


    For information about our current Wellness/Culture Ambassador opportunities, go to the WMed Portal (Login Required) or email culture@wmed.edu to be added to our monthly Ambassador email communications.