UCM Resources

Be Well and Stay Connect: Resources and Support

The Office of Faculty Affairs serves as a resource to support faculty within the BSD.  The site is continually adding resources and developing opportunities to engage remotely and stay connected.

Zoom Wellness Series Recording

This series provides information, guided practice, tools and tips to maintain wellness and is being led by faculty in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience.

Ombudspersons

The Ombudspersons are available to serve as a confidential and private sounding board for trainees regarding their experiences at the UCM. They will also investigate and resolve complaints of mistreatment or other issues and abuses. These incidents may occur in the classroom, hospital setting or at school-sponsored events, and may involve students, residents, staff, or faculty. The Ombudspersons will work with each trainee to explore options, suggest resources and call attention to the appropriate faculty members and administrators.

Perspectives

• Username: UCH001, password: perspectives

No-cost, confidential resource designed to help people with the challenges of daily living, such as stress, conflict, relationships, financial issues, child/elder care needs, legal assistance, etc. Assessment, referral, short-term counseling (when indicated) and follow-up are available through in-person appointments or telephone counseling. Licensed professional counselors are available 24/7 at 800-456-6327. Self-directed information and resources are also available on Perspectives mobile friendly website.

Physicians Assistance Committee (PAC)

The PAC has the responsibility to receive, verify and evaluate reports related to the health, well-being and impairment of physicians. The PAC is composed of physicians and representatives from the dean’s office, Graduate Medical Education, Medical Center administration, as well as counselors from the Employee Assistance Program. After evaluation, the committee will work closely with the physician to facilitate treatment, aftercare, licensing issues and return to work plans. In all cases, confidentiality is protected to the greatest extent feasible, and everyone works together to facilitate a complete recovery for the physician.

• Contact Dr. Steven Montner, Chair of the Physician’s Assistance Committee smontner@radiology.bsd.uchicago.edu or 773-702-3654
• Contact Iris Romero, Co-Chair, at iromero@bsd.uchicago.edu, or Perspectives at 800-456-6327 

 Resident Compliance Hotline

The Resident Compliance Hotline at 877-440-5480 provides a toll-free anonymous way for you to ask a question or report a concern about the ACGME resident duty hours requirement or incidents of bias or discrimination. The hotline is available 24/7 and is managed by the Office of Medical Center Compliance. The line is not equipped with caller ID and calls cannot be traced. Messages may be left in a private voicemail box if the Chief Compliance Officer is not available to answer the phone.

Podcasts

Cognitive Skill-Building for Well-Being 

Episode 1: imposter phenomenon

ACGME Senior Scholar for Well-Being, Stuart Slavin, MD, explores the experience of impostor phenomenon in clinical settings. Dr. Slavin focuses in particular on how medical students transitioning into residency experience impostor phenomenon and explores its multiple impacts on physicians training in the clinical learning environment.

Episode 2: approaches to well-being

ACGME Senior Scholar for Well-Being, Dr. Stuart Slavin, describes his work educating medical residents and Program Directors across the country in cognitive approaches to well-being and introduces a framework for approaching well-being in GME programs. Topics include the common negative mindsets to which residents and others working in stressful clinical environments can become vulnerable.  Dr. Slavin maintains that medical students transitioning into residency are particularly at risk for falling prey to these mindsets.

Episode 3: developing metacognitive skills

ACGME Senior Scholar for Well-Being Stuart Slavin, MD returns to share strategies for developing the metacognitive skills needed to help us address our individual negative mindsets and improve our well-being. Dr. Slavin argues that cultivating these skills can help residents challenge the entrenched “automatic thinking” that so readily develops as a defense to the stressors of the clinical learning environment.

Episode 4: coping with negative mindsets

ACGME Senior Scholar for Well-Being Dr. Stuart Slavin discusses what residency programs can do to help physicians cope with negative mindsets and impostor phenomenon. Dr. Slavin provides an overview of several concepts from cognitive psychology, such as explanatory style and emotional self-regulation, that programs can introduce to their local curriculum to help residents and faculty enhance their well-being.

Episode 5: psychological first aid for coordinators 

In this episode, Stuart Slavin, MD, MEd, ACGME’s Senior Scholar for Well-Being, discusses the role of Psychological First Aid (PFA) in providing support for individuals who have suffered some kind of trauma or other devastating event. We discuss the relevance of the approach to supporting to clinicians, patients and others managing the stressors of the pandemic, as well as the specific strategies used in PFA, which was collaboratively developed by a coalition of international military and non-governmental organizations as a response to victims of war, natural disasters and other traumatic events.