Well-being in the Curriculum

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The HMS MD program emphasizes the importance of well-being, wellness and health through policies and programs, and integrates well-being sessions throughout the 4-year curriculum.

Well-being is a professionalism objective of the MD program. By the time of graduation, all students will be able to apply the skills and incorporate the attitudes needed to maintain and promote personal wellness.

The MD program’s policy for academic workload and clinical duty hours in MD courses and clerkships includes an emphasis on personal wellness. Students are encouraged to maintain self-care and monitor other goals for personal wellness (e.g., getting adequate sleep each night) irrespective of the total amount of hours spent on educational activities.

Well-being is integrated throughout the MD curriculum in both Pathways and HST curricular tracks and across the phases of the MD curriculum from Preclerkship through Post-PCE.

By Phase

(course descriptions are available in the my.harvard course catalog)

Preclerkship Curriculum

The Preclerkship curriculum includes: Wellness sessions in the Professional Orientation Days; in the Pathways Professional Development Weeks (PDW 101 & PDW 102); in the Developing Physician (tDP) component of the Practice of Medicine course; and in a session on professional development in the HST Introduction to Clinical Medicine (ICM) course.

A session on mental health as an important pillar of individual growth as a physician-innovator is included in the HST first-year course, Growth of the Physician Scientist.

Principal Clinical Experience (PCE)

Students in the Principal Clinical Experience (PCE) focus on well-being in tDP sessions during the PCE, and they revisit well-being in the Clinical Capstone course in one of the final months of the MD curriculum. There are also flex days and social activities organized at each PCE site.

Post-PCE

Students in the Post-Principal Clinical Experience (Post-PCE) revisit well-being in the Clinical Capstone course in one of the final months of the MD curriculum. Additionally, there a few non-clinical capstone courses are available, such as: Training the Eye; Spirituality and Healing in Medicine; and We All Have Our Stories: Literature and Medicine.