Fitness for Duty/Wellness

Fellows must be educated about their self-reflection on "Fitness for Duty". It is clear that current alcohol or illicit substance use is incompatible with fitness to provide medical care to others. Excess fatigue, or medical or psychiatric illness may also preclude participation in the workplace.

During the two years of the Critical Care Fellowship, there might be a time where the fellow may experience fatigue, sleepiness, anxiety, depression, etc. All of these things can impact the balance of the body, mind, and spirit. Physicians-in-training might be unable or unwilling to recognize their own state of health due to the pressures of perfection that are often part of the intrinsic nature of high achievers, however, these things are important to the fellow’s success in fellowship as well as in patient care.

Any Critical Care fellow who does not feel fit for duty should consult with their current program director or Employee Health. Additionally, a supervisor who has concerns regarding a fellow’s fitness for duty should also consult with the Program Director and/or Associate Dean for Graduate Medical Education. Appropriate use of sick call includes unexpected illness, death in the family, or other personal emergency. Sick call is not to be used for scheduled absences, e.g., doctor’s visits, family responsibilities, interviews, etc. For such scheduled absences, the Critical Care fellow will follow their department procedures in compliance with human resources/payroll policy.

Examples of additional situations in which a fellow may not be fit for duty include but are not limited to:

  • Use of medications that impair adequate performance or dexterity significantly
  • Grief that precludes concentration
  • Acute illness that would make the physician a risk to others, for example, infectious illness

The Program Director should be contacted at any point during a rotation if a critical care fellow is feeling worn out from working long hours at the hospital providing patient care. Coverage will then be set up. If they can't go back home safely, transportation will be set up for them. The Critical Care fellow must rigorously adhere to the 80-hour work restriction for the sake of the fellow's health.

Well-being

Sanvello App (Free)

Sanvello was rated the best stress relief app in 2019. This app provides many self-help tools for stress such as mediation, guided journeys, ways to reframe your thoughts, tracking your health and daily mood, and also it provides a discussion board where others may add the ways they cope with stress by sharing movies or music that may help or sharing stories of the stress in your life.

Headspace ($)

Headspace has hundreds of articles for any mind, any mood, any goal. Headspace includes guided meditation, 40 mindless exercises for cooking, eating, commuting, sleep sounds to ease your mind, and more.

MoodMission App (Free)

MoodMission uses the questionnaire you fill out to help you better cope with your moods. Each day it will ask you how you are feeling and give you 5-10 mission objective options to help improve your mood. Each mission objective gives a section called "why this helps" to show evidence-based research of how they can help improve your mood.

Moodfit App (Free)

Moodfit allows you to create a personalized goal list to improve your mood. The goal options range from mood, exercise, mindfulness exercises, sunlight, gratitude, sleep, nutrition, and socializing. Moodfit will also track how your mood can be positively or negatively affected by your daily goals. The app will also provide tools to boost your mood through breathing techniques, mindfulness audio/readings, gratitude and send you custom inspirational reminders.

Tips for combating stress: foster relationships, involve religion or spirituality, practice self-care physically and psychologically, derive new meaning for work, develop a new approach to life with insight, understanding, and core values.