UPMC Shadyside Family Medicine - All Pour One and One Pour All - 02.15.23

UPMC Shadyside Family Medicine ventured out to explore their creative side by.... 

... making candles. The event was designed to fun and completed unrelated to medicine to all the residents to decompress and increase their bonds as a team.  At the same time they were able to support a local small business. 

Results/Outcome Survey
1. What was the general understanding of the purpose of the project/program by participants?

The purpose of the candle making event was for residents to take time out of their busy schedules to do something creative and fun, unrelated to medicine and away from the stresses of our day to day. It was also an opportunity to mingle and build stronger bonds among residents, while we explored our city and supported a local business.

2. During the project/program, what tangible tools or strategies were demonstrated or taught (i.e, coping skills for wellness and life balance)

During the program where we had a chance to create uniquely scented candles, first by exploring different scents, creating our personal scent and pouring our candles. We learned a lot about being present – specifically, using our senses (in this case sense of smell) to bring us back to enjoy our ‘now.’ It also allowed us the opportunity to do something creative, coming up with something that we enjoy and that expresses our personalities. Lastly, the candles take about 2 hours to set and waiting for our candles to set was an exercise in patience!

3. What word(s) best describes how you feel when you are experiencing stress or well-being imbalance?

When I am experiencing stress or well-being imbalance, I would describe it as feeling overwhelmed, scatter brained and off center.

4. What suggestions do you have to increase the probability of success for the project/program for other institutions?

I would recommend finding a time and date that works optimally for as many residents in the program. I was fortunate to have had attendance of 18 of our 30 residents. The bigger group the better. This would also be a great orientation activity.

5. 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?

It was very cool to see that at the end of the activity, everyone came up with a one-of-a-kind scented candles, it was telling of how these scents are a reflection of everyone’s different personalities and preferences. These differences and that diversity is what makes being part of a team with everyone so valuable, but throughout the process, we found ourselves frequently asking each other “What do you think of this” I think learning to ask each other for feedback and knowing that everyone has a different strength and personality is a something that can improve our response to stressful situations.