Resilience and Well-being

Resilience and well-being is a challenge not just for those in hospice and palliative care, but for all of medicine. Although evidence suggests that organizational factors such as workflow disruptions associated with documentation in the electronic health record play a larger role than personal factors in driving clinician distress, there are things each of us can do to boost our own well-being.

These resources will help you think about new ways to build resilience for you, your team, your organization, and the healthcare community. As we work together to affect policy change and improve our systems, we hope to find ways to renew our spirit and continue to find joy in our work.

Videos and presentations

View these inspiring videos to help lift your spirits and build resilience:

• Jessica Pettitt speaks on how you can be your best tool for conversations that matter in her 2018 Annual Assembly presentation, Good Enough Now: How Doing the Best We Can with What We Have is Better than Nothing!
• Dio Kavalieratos, PhD discusses the importance of building resilience in this video, What Are We Learning about Burnout and Building Resiliency in Hospice and Palliative Care Clinicians?
• Watch the Service of Remembrance from the 2021 Annual Assembly of Hospice and Palliative Care

View our town hall presentation slides:

• Critical Conversations: Challenges of Clinician Well-being and Resilience in Hospice and Palliative Care slides from the Town Hall discussion with leaders from AAHPM, the Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association and the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization.

Watch these online educational modules from the American Medical Association:

• Preventing Physician Burnout
• Improving Physician Resiliency

Articles

Read these articles and reports:

• Prevalence and Predictors of Burnout among Hospice and Palliative Care Clinicians in the U.S.”, Journal of Pain and Symptom Management (free to AAHPM members and journal subscribers)
• It Is Like Heart Failure. It Is Chronic…and It Will Kill You”: A Qualitative Analysis of Burnout Among Hospice and Palliative Care Clinicians, Journal of Pain and Symptom Management (free to AAHPM members and journal subscribers)
• Help Hands Needs a Break, Too: How to Lend Support Without Burning Out, National Public Radio
• The Precious Necessity of Compassion, Journal of Pain and Symptom Management (free to AAHPM members and journal subscribers)
• Physician Lifestyle & Happiness Report: Physicians’ Life Beyond Work, Medscape (requires free login)
• National Physician Burnout and Depressions Report, Medscape (requires free login)
• Charter on Physician Well-being, JAMA Network (full text requires subscription)
• IHI Framework for Improving Joy in Work, Institute for Healthcare Improvement.
• How Storytelling Can Help Young Doctors Become More Resilient, Harvard Business Review
• Remembrance: A Self-Care Tool for Clinicians, Journal of Palliative Medicine (full text requires subscription)
• Breaching the Professional-personal Boundary - An Unrecognized Risk for Burnout, New England Journal of Medicine (full text requires subscription)

External Organizations

As a member of the Council of Medical Specialty Societies, AAHPM has been actively engaged in the efforts of the National Academy of Medicine Action Collaborative on Clinician Well-Being and Resilience and has joined the network of organizations that is committed to reversing trends in clinician burnout.

Visit these sites for additional resources:

• National Academy of Medicine: The Knowledge Hub and Expressions of Clinician Well-Being, An Art Exhibition
• American Medical Association: Joy of Medicine Initiative
• Supportive Care Coalition: Cultivating Professional Resilience