Questions? Contact Us

Becky Blankenburg, MD, MPH

Associate Dean of Graduate Medical Education

Katie Mak-Cheng

GME Senior Project Coordinator for Well-Being & Learning Environment
kmkcheng@stanford.edu
Stanford Profile

GME Well-Being

Welcome to Stanford Graduate Medical Education (GME) Well-Being Website! We work with residents, fellows, program leadership, and other well-being champions to make structural and long-lasting changes to support well-being in Graduate Medical Education. Our team is dedicated to providing you with essential resources focused on mental and physical health, developing psychologically safe and inclusive learning environments, supporting trainees who are parents, and fostering a strong sense of community across GME.

Mental & Physical Health Resources

WellConnect

Confidential mental health referral and consultation service to facilitate timely access to counseling, stress management and coping skills, wellness coaching (including strategies to mitigate burnout, and mental health services. Open to all benefits-eligible SOM residents and fellows as well as faculty.

Access this benefit here.

For immediate assistance, call (650) 724-1395. This phone line is staffed 24 hours a day.

For more information on WellConnect, click here.

Faculty Staff Help Center (FSHC)

Available for individuals, couples, and families, FSHC provides short-term professional and confidential counseling about work-related or personal issues. Family members can enroll independently. This benefit includes 10 free sessions per topic and is open to residents, clinical fellows, post-docs and faculty.

Request an appointment

Physicians Resource Network (PRN) Support

Confidential, legally-protected collegial support and resources for clinical, professional, and personal challenges (e.g., wanting to discuss a medical error, conflict at work). This program typically consists of 1-2 interactions and is available for all residents, fellows, and faculty.

Contact PRN Peer Support at prnsupport@stanford.edu.

For more information on the Physician Resource Network, click here.

Leaves of Absence & Accommodations

Mae Manalo, MS
Associate HR Business Partner
650-304-8857
maemanalo@stanfordhealthcare.org

For more information on LOA, click here

Mistreatment Reporting

Our office of Graduate Medical Education (GME) takes mistreatment very seriously. If you are experiencing mistreatment, please report your concerns through any of the avenues listed below.

GME Well-Being Committee

Created in 2022, the Graduate Medical Education (GME) Well-Being Committee is a system-level working group composed of residents, fellows, faculty, and program coordinators across the School of Medicine. After gathering input from residents and fellows, the GME Well-Being Committee has identified four areas of focus:

Improving trainee awareness and access of mental health resources
Addressing mistreatment
Supporting trainees who are parents
Fostering GME community

This year, the committee received 59 applications, indicating the enthusiasm that so many trainees have to make progress in these areas.

Watch this video made by WellMD & WellPhD to learn more about the progress being made by the committee.

2023-2024 Subcommittee Concentrated Efforts

Improving Trainee Access to Mental Health Resources
The subcommittee, led by Dr. Hayley Galitzer and Jordan Chavez, LCSW, along with Drs. Carlie Arbaugh, Grant Lin, and Neha Shah, partnered with Stanford WellConnect to develop robust communication materials. You can find the WellConnect infographic here, and a step-by-step approach on how to be reimbursed for external mental health visits here.

Addressing Mistreatment
Led by Dr. Ram Rao and Sara Krzyzaniak, along with Drs. Caroline Buckway, Craig Comiter, Portia Thomas, and Gretchen Shawver, this subcommittee created an infographic outlining different mechanisms for reporting mistreatment at Stanford. They will distribute it to various call rooms, team rooms, and other accessible locations for residents and fellows. In addition, this year’s GME Well-Being badge buddies will feature a direct link to the mistreatment infographic.

Supporting Trainees who are Parents
Led by Drs. Bonnie Chow and Devika Bhushan, along with Drs. Lia Franco, Meghan Imrie, and Jessica Chen, this subcommittee worked on creating a parenting survey to better understand the needs of our GME parenting community. They also developed a parent affinity group listserv to connect trainees to resources and GME updates specifically geared towards parents.

Fostering the GME Community
Led by Dr. Avital Fischer and Erin Hart, along with Drs. Amy Alexander, Sonja Eagle, Amanda Rigas, and Selma Tanovic, this subcommittee hosted a wonderful Spring Mixer for GME residents in March at a local eatery, which saw over 60 residents from different training programs in attendance.

Get Involved
For those interested in joining the GME Well-Being Committee for 2025-2026, applications will open Fall 2025.

GME Well-Being Grants Program

GME Well-Being is thrilled to announce the launch of our GME Well-Being Grant Program for Stanford residents and fellows! Our primary aim with these grants is to support you in transforming your innovative well-being ideas into tangible initiatives, fostering a culture of wellbeing and peer support within our Stanford Graduate Medical Education (GME) community.

Based on resident, fellow, program director, and program coordinator feedback, there are two types of grants being offered for this 2024-2025 academic year:

GME Well-Being Trainee Grants (for initiatives co-led by residents/fellows)

Maximum $1000 grants

Purpose: Create or expand GME-wide programming to foster well-being and improved learning environments in the GME community (2 or more programs)

Examples: community-building events, ergonomic initiatives, access to mental health/physical health services, Kindness Coalition, etc.

GME Well-Being Program Grants (for initiatives co-led by residents/fellows and program faculty or staff)

Maximum $4000 grants

Purpose: As these grants have increased levels of funding, the goal is to delve deeper into establishing programmatic changes to address structural impacts on well-being, improve learning environment, improve access to healthcare, and other ways of improving resident/fellow well-being.

Examples: improving psychological safety in the learning environment, creating structures to improve access to mental and physical healthcare, developing processes that improve provider efficiency

Applications for the GME Well-Being Grants have closed for the 2024-2025 Academic year. For those interested in bringing their well-being initiatives and ideas to life, we will begin accepting applications for 2025-2026 in Fall 2025.

2023-2024 GME Well-Being Trainee Grant-Funded Initiatives

Housestaff Family Fest

The Housestaff Family Fest, led by Dr. Krishna Bharani, a fellow within the Stanford Pathology program, took place in April 2024 on the Stanford’s Dean’s Lawn and featured a petting zoo, bouncy castle, crafts and snacks for residents and fellows and their families. The event drew housestaff from various specialties in attendance to join in the fun. Parents could informally swap advice with one another and enjoy the many activities available.

The Kindness Coalition

The Kindness Coalition (TKC), led by Drs. Amity Eliaz and Prerak Juthani, residents within the Stanford Internal Medicine Program, is an organization and initiative aimed at increasing kindness and collaboration among healthcare workers across professions and departments.

The Book Banquet

The Book Banquet, led by Dr. Ellen Zhang, a resident within the Stanford Internal Medicine Program, featured two engaging sessions where attendees came together to discuss books, share their thoughts on literature and medical ethics, and reflect on prose and various writings over dinner in May 2024.

Trifecta

The Trifecta event, a social mixer that connected residents and fellows from Stanford Health Care, the Stanford Graduate School of Business and Stanford Law School with each other, took place in May 2024 within Stanford CCSR Atrium . Led by Dr. Kelley Yuan, a resident from the Stanford Pathology program, this event aimed to bring together individuals to meet the other bright, and inspiring people on campus.

CAMPeR

Dr. Alec Bernard, a resident within the Stanford Ophthalmology Program, successfully organized CAMPeR, a memorable backpacking trip for 24 participants and an intern welcome dinner that was attended by over 50 new residents. These events have been pivotal in establishing a robust support system for our residents, increasing their confidence, and equipping them with essential tools for resilience and well-being during their training.

Powerpoint Night

Dr. Natasha Abadilla, a resident within the Stanford Child Neurology Program, led a fun, novel initiative to encourage learning and connection outside of medicine with their medical colleagues. During the months of April, May, and June 2024, residents and fellows volunteered to give five-minute Powerpoint presentations to a larger group of residents, fellows, and other hospital community members about an interest, adventure, or fun thing they enjoy doing or learning about outside of medicine.

GME Well-Being Awards

The GME Well-Being Award serves to recognize the outstanding work accomplished by residents and fellows at Stanford who:

Promote and support well-being
Address structural causes of well-being
Improve access to trainee mental health
Foster a safe and inclusive learning environment
Create a sense of belonging and community

This award is sponsored by the Office of Graduate Medical Education. Awards are presented to recipients at the GME Award Ceremony each year. Award nominations will be due March 2025.

The 2023-2024 GME Well-Being Award Recipients were:

GME Well-Being Events

Our GME Well-Being events aim to foster connection amongst the invaluable members of the Graduate Medical Education community. These events are designed to provide opportunities for residents, fellows, faculty, and staff to engage in meaningful interactions, share experiences, and support one another.

GME Fall Family Picnic

The GME Fall Family Picnic grew out of our GME Well-Being Committee and one of their key focus areas in providing support to our trainees who are parents. The picnic took place on Saturday, September 14th at SOM Dean’s Lawn. We welcomed over 200 community members and their families, including residents, fellows, faculty, and program administrators.

Families got to enjoy the many fun activities available including eating delicious food at the Hawaiian food truck and shaved ice stand, watching the tropical bird show and letting their kids get their faces painted while requesting a balloon animal of their choice!

GME Spring Family Picnic

The 2024 GME Spring Family Picnic hosted an amazing community of over 100 Stanford residents, fellows, program leaders and their children who came out to Nealon Park on Saturday, May 18th, 2024.

Attendees got to connect with other residents, fellows and program leadership while their children swung, jumped and ran around the play structure with new friends. They enjoyed a delicious lunch of pizza and hand dipped ice cream tacos from a local ice cream vendor.

GME Well-Being Newsletter

Discover our archive of the Graduate Medical Education’s monthly Well-Being newsletter. Each month, our team aims to highlight:

Well-Being resources beneficial to trainees
Ongoing well-being efforts within the community
Updates on the current efforts of the GME Well-Being Committee, chaired by Dr. Becky Blankenburg, Assistant Dean of GME

To stay up-to-date on GME Well-Being, please consider subscribing to our Well-Being listserv.

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