Work-life balance

Institutional support for work-life balance fosters work satisfaction among faculty, allowing them to contribute on flexible terms. General surgery resident Leisha Elmore, MD, has extended this departmental core value to the trainee level through her award-winning research on gender differences in burnout among U.S. general surgery residents. Her research abstract, reporting results from her national survey of residents, garnered an award at the 2016 Academic Surgical Congress. A key finding: the rate of burnout for women went up when they had a partner or a partner and children, while the rate of burnout decreased for men under the same circumstances. Women and men also exhibited different signs of burnout. Elmore reports residents help each other through nanny sharing and other means; they also draw from senior residents, alumni and faculty for both career and life advice. Wellness initiatives to enhance resident quality of life also are under way.