2017 Articles

Current Directions in Medical Student Well-Being

Noori, Sofia; Blood, Alyssa; Meleca, Joe; Kennedy, Vanessa; Sengupta, Debashree

Traditionally, topics pertaining to student well-being have been conspicuously sparse throughout medical school curricula. This contradiction has been well documented in human health literature, and the academic medical community has developed strategies to respond to this need. A literature review of terms pertaining to medical student wellness was conducted to generate 34 unique articles. The articles were categorized based on three common themes: mental health, diversity, and work-life balance. In mental health, institutional changes such as professional and peer-to-peer counseling have demonstrated promising improvements. The advent of pipeline programs and student research fellowships has increased learning environment diversity. Finally, wellness programming in recreation and the arts, as well as academic shifts to pass-fail grading, have proven successful in improving work-life balance. While many of these initiatives have enriched the mental well-being of medical students, there remains a critical need to standardize these practices nationally.