St. Vincent Family Medicine – Team Building Dinner 05.04.24

St. Vincent Family Residents participating in a team building event featuring an escape room and dinner event. 

1. What was the general understanding of the purpose of the project/program by participants?
This event will allow the residents to further their bond with their peers and faculty outside of the hospital and office training environment. They will learn more about each other and create a measure of wellness and balance, promoting enhanced team functioning.

2. Why did you choose the specific wellness project/activity?
The Escape Game Erie, LLC's Axe Murder Hollow escape room (4838 W Ridge Road, Erie, PA 16506) was chosen as a team-building activity that would promote entertaining interaction in a game-like atmosphere away from the stress of the learning environment. This was followed by a group dinner at the Wooden Ladle Ramen & Rice Bowl (4753 W Lake Rd, Erie, PA 16505) for an opportunity of fellowship over a shared meal.

3. During the project/program, what tangible tools or strategies were demonstrated or taught to address wellness and life balance?
The themes center around cooperation and teamwork. This is similar to what is required of them as they care for patients in a complex system. Examples are inpatient service handoffs, ambulatory care handoffs, coverage of peers during illness, or unexpected family requirements. The residents were exposed to individuals with different work styles, and this experience helped teach them about  planning, goal setting, and creating alignment. All of these are essential skills that will assist in wellness and balance in their professional and personal lives. There was also a team building exercise over dinner (Three Truths and A Lie) that allowed them to deepen their knowledge of one another and to reflect on themselves regarding assumptions others have made about them. All in a safe and collegial environment.

4. What do you intend to do, upon returning to work, that you learned and practiced during the activity, that will improve your response to stressful situations?
Avoid catastrophizing when there is a problem. Instead, focus on tangible and incremental strategies that produce positive outcomes and lead to success for the entire team. Overcoming these inevitable hurdles during training will promote esprit de corps among the program's learners and enhance teamwork.

5. What can POMA do to address wellness and life balance for your future?
This grant went a long way in promoting wellness in our residency program. This is a unique activity that POMA is sponsoring, and it is terrific to see organized medicine taking such a tangible step to promote resident wellness and balance. Our institution hopes to see this grant process continue, and we hope to submit for this in the future. Other organized medicine bodies should note what POMA is doing and replicate this to create even more opportunities for residents. We should all remember that POMA is leading this charge for Pennsylvania’s future physicians.