Resident Wellness and Vacation Policy
Resident Outings
In the interests of consistently promoting Resident Wellness, support, and building team camaraderie; the program actively promotes residents to get together outside of the walls of the Hospital. The program sponsors quarterly resident dinners at a restaurant of their choosing. In addition, our residents love each other so much, they do make it a point to enjoy the city with each other at least once every 2-3 weeks!
Rush PM&R Wellness Challenge
Each month, our entire department (Residents and Faculty) participate in a Wellness Challenge. The monthly challenge is announced by our Wellness Committee and accomplishments are tracked by our Department provided FitBits. Residents are organized by PGY class and compete against the classes and the Faculty.
The typical challenges are:
- Sleep
- Steps
- Completing Mindfulness Exercises on the Fitbit App
- Water Consumption
The winning class is awarded a free dinner as a group at a restaurant of their choosing!
Resident Wellness Initiatives
Hospital Initiatives:
The Wellness Initiative for the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation is organized and coordinated by Dr. Chirag Shah. The Department is supported by multiple resources offered by the hospital for our faculty, residents, and students as follows
- Access to the Center for Clinical Wellness (located on Campus)
- Free 24/7 Counseling Services via the Rush Center for Clinical Wellness with videoconferencing available on mobile devices
- Self-Care Video Series
- Professional and personal development through “Skillbuilders” — free 30-45 minute online tutorials that address numerous topics including Emotional Wellbeing, Achieving Personal Goals, Managing Stress, Time Management, The Power of Resilience, etc
- Online resources for self-care, stress management, mindfulness, physical activity, and mental health
- Well-Being Coaches
- Mini-Wellness Retreats - spend 60 minutes at the Center of Clinical Wellness to enhance your well-being through special, targeting experience (including access to Energy Pod)
- 2 month Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Program (with Patty Normand)
- Health and Wellness Programs
- Pre-screened services for child and elder care, legal support, and financial planning
- Access to Fitness Center
Department Initiatives:
To supplement the above resources and encourage residents to be aware and acknowledge the importance of their well-being, we have instituted the following Departmental Initiatives:
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Residents can self-identify as having wellness or fatigue issue to automatically allow them to be free of clinical duties to seek necessary treatment (i.e. respite, counseling, etc)
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Quarterly Meeting with Dr. Shah to discuss current feelings of fatigue, work-life balance, social stressors, etc
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Bi-Yearly Meeting with Faculty Mentor
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Quarterly Resident Retreats - all residents are free of clinical duties during this time. The program is spearheaded by our Resident Wellness Chair and Social Chair with residents asked to create an open forum to talk about work and life stressors to come up with solutions to be presented to the Program Leadership. The hope is that the retreats strengthen the bonds amongst the residents and create program improvements
Vacation Policy
To support the wellness initiatives above, the department Vacation Policy was made as flexible as possible:
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Weekends are typically free of clinical duties other than the few call weekends while completing Inpatient Rehabilitation Rotation
- 4 weeks of vacation (20 weekdays) - residents are allowed to schedule each one-week vacation block anytime of the year that best suits their needs. If needed, residents can split up the one-week vacation block to accommodate attending multiple weddings, family events, etc
- Additional 8 days can be used as needed for sickness, wellness, family emergency, attending conferences, and work/fellowship interviews