Wellness Through COVID
As we continue into this new year, it’s apparent whatever normal we return to won’t be the same as it was before March 2020. The changes we’re going through can be confusing, overwhelming and depressing. Some, when seeking a helpful perspective, use the metaphor of a marathon, which emphasizes the need to pace ourselves through the long stretch ahead.
Before this pandemic emerged, physicians typically developed a similar view about their career, whether towards their lengthy professional training, their dedication to a lifetime of service, or some other long-termed intention. This capacity, sometimes called resilience or buoyancy, can be cultivated by the multiple practices that fall within the umbrella term of “wellness”. By acknowledging the importance of self-care, the impacts of how we relate to ourselves and others, as well as other health-promoting routines, we at COM are focusing on how to interweave wellness into the lives of our students, professional staff and faculty.
Since its inception, the holistic tenets of Osteopathic Medicine have been at the core of this school’s community, putting our institution into a favorable position when COVID drastically modified our lives. Before the outbreak, our school such as the nationally recognized “Healer’s Art” to the pre-clinical students. Faculty and professional staff supported student groups such as WellCOM, the Wilderness Club, and the Integrative Medicine Club. Dean Carreiro also established an advisory committee dedicated to Wellness. It supported the development of emerging initiatives such as the Resiliency Seminar Series and student-generated Compassion Training Workshops.
When COVID struck, the faculty strengthened the advising system offered to pre-clinical students using wellness approaches. In addition to starting the Resiliency Seminar Series, Dean Pierce-Talsma created a conceptual backbone to ground the advising system. Titled “SUPPORT” (Study Skills, Unique goals, Play, Professional development, Osteopathic approach, Research, Team focused), it provides faculty a framework to understand issues students are facing during these shifting times. Additionally, through community building practices such as explicit group check-ins, faculty are fostering collaborative learning experiences for students who are adjusting to an unprecedented decrease in social interaction.
We are also following the leads of the innovative students we are so fortunate to be with at COM. The
By Selma Holden, MD, MPH