Women Just Wanna Have Time: Wellness Innovation Research

Abstract

Many studies have shown that the stress / mental tension that residents endure in the workspace and within the familial domain (particularly female residents) can have a negative impact on their well-being [4-6, 9-10, 12-15, 17, 20-21]. Well-being originates from positive emotion, flow or the ability to be fully consumed by an activity, and from perceived life purpose [4-6, 9-10, 12-15, 17,20-21]. Over recent years, there has been an emphasis on improving well-being amongst medical residents in response to observed high burnout rates. Often, this well-being improvement focused on stress reduction [6]. Many of the interventional studies that sought to impact stress perception in residents utilized techniques such as mindfulness, meditation, and movement, often running several weeks, sessions lasting 1 – 2 hours [4-5, 9-10, 12-15, 17-18, 20-21]. Although many of these studies showed positive outcomes, we sought to evaluate how 15 minutes a day of self-led movement, meditation, and mindfulness exercises could improve the experience of stress in the obstetrics and gynecology (OBGYN) resident population at a university associated medical center residency program.