Kern Institute Student Pillar

Led by Cassie Ferguson, MD, Joanne Bernstein, MD and Theresa Maatman, MD

A focus of the Student Pillar is to address the question of whether the core concepts and skills aimed at improving well-being should be taught in the general medical school curriculum. To address this, the group has designed and developed the "REACH Out” Student Wellness Curriculum pilot which took off in February 2019.

As part of the NTN Student Well-Being Workgroup, MCW is partnering in piloting the utilization of the UW-Madison Center for Healthy Minds Innovations app and wellness program for medical students. The app and program incorporate four constituents of well-being: Awareness, Connection, Insight and Purpose.

Led by Cassie Ferguson, MD

Dr. Ferguson is most passionate about improving wellness and well-being for students. Resources, including improving access to mental health services for medical students, trainees and faculty are important in creating a campus wide campaign to destigmatize and normalize the act of seeking mental health help. She adds books, articles, podcasts, websites, talks, events and artwork to the MCW Library Wellness Research page that it is dedicated to clinician well-being.

Assisted by Cassie Ferguson, MD

As Learning Communities at MCW evolve, student well-being will be an important domain in continuing to nurture character and caring in our medical students. The MCW Common Read and Med Moth events are just the first steps in starting to foster a sense of student community that directly impact student well-being.