DOM Blog: New initiative takes wellness among health care professionals ‘beyond the badge’

The University of Arizona Department of Medicine, with full support of Chair James K. Liao, MD, launched a wellness-focused effort entitled the WellDOM Initiative in early spring 2025, to identify areas of opportunity for enhanced professional fulfillment and wellbeing in the workplace. 

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As the initiative got underway, we were excited to welcome Stephen Dahmer, MD, director of the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine, chief of the Division of Integrative Medicine in the Department of Family & Community Medicine, and assistant dean of wellness for the U of A College of Medicine – Tucson, in joining the initiative as an interested partner.

In March, we conducted a survey with all DOM faculty and trainees (resident & fellow physicians), eliciting feedback on their perceived opportunities and challenges to personal wellness within the workplace. We received over 100 responses. Information gathered was highly informative to next steps for our WellDOM initiative, an acronym that stands for Wellness in the DOM.

Three key themes emerged from the survey responses. Faculty and trainees wanted to: 1) feel valued and recognized for their work and contributions, 2) experience a sense of community and belonging within their workplace, and 3) believe their personal wellbeing matters to the institution. These are now the three pillars of WellDOM. 

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In response to the first pillar —  feeling valued and recognized, we hosted an inaugural DOM Faculty Awards Ceremony on June 4 in the COM-T Social Hall. We solicited peer- and self-nominations and recognized 20 DOM faculty for their hard work and contributions to the department and our academic mission. As we presented awards, we read individual excerpts from each nomination. It was a lovely evening filled with immense gratitude. We plan to repeat it annually.

In response to the second pillar — a sense of community and belonging, we launched a sub-initiative entitled “Beyond the Badge,” which is meant to promote the idea that whether one is a U of A or Banner employee or student, we’re all on the same team. This ideal aims to create forums for medical students, residents, fellows, faculty and staff (including outside of the DOM) to connect around common interests. On July 7, for instance, we hosted an inaugural WellDOM Chess Club meetup. It was held at the AWCIM’s Iris Cantor Building, thanks to Dr. Dahmer’s partnership in this initiative.

The evening went great! It drew 10 chess enthusiasts — a medical student, three residents, four physician faculty, a staff member and a spouse. Considering we advertised with short notice and it was summer, we call it a great success. A post-event survey to measure impact on wellness received eight responses — all overwhelmingly positive. They indicated the meetup offered a meaningful break from work, left participants feeling more connected to peers and less stressed, and strengthened the notion other similar events could support their own wellness and wellbeing.

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“The only common thing there was a passion for the game,” said the Division of Nephrology’s Venkatesh Ariyamathu, MD, one of three DOM faculty members spearheading the chess club, now set to meet monthly. It joins longer-serving efforts such as the Docapella singing group led by U of A medical students. We also are expanding a hiking club led by trauma surgeons, and are in discussions on starting a New York Times bestseller book club. If anyone is interested in these or spearheading another type of “Beyond the Badge” club, please contact me for further details!

In response to the third pillar — that our personal wellbeing matters to the institution, I met in June with Richard Orlandi, MD, MBA, CEO of the Banner – University Medical Group, Alison Flynn Gaffney, CEO of Banner – University Medical Center Tucson and Banner – UMC South, and Andrew Tang, MD, Department of Surgery vice chair of clinical operations and physician executive, Banner – University Medical Group Tucson, to showcase the results of our WellDOM initiative and themes that emerged.

I was thrilled to receive overwhelming support for this mission. We identified a critical piece to moving the needle on this important topic is to collaborate across departments. Afterward, I presented a plan to all departmental chairs to create a “Wellness Council” comprised of wellness champions from every clinical department and the college. Members for that council are being named now. It will work collectively with COM-T and Banner leadership on ways to enhance professional fulfillment across the institution.

“The council is in the inception stage, but we certainly believe in its value,” said Dr. Tang in an email to department heads. “We just need engagement and a true belief and commitment to the purpose of taking care of each other. We are in arguably one of the most stressful professions – and we need to put care and wellness somewhere on our personal and professional map.”

Dr. Dahmer and I also connected with Andreas Theodorou, MD, COM-T Pediatrics professor and vice chair of clinical affairs and quality, GME Leadership Development director and Gold Humanism Honor Society faculty advisor, and BUMG Tucson pediatrics clinical leader, to resurrect what was formerly known as the “Academic Wellbeing Collaborative,” a group of representatives across both Banner Tucson and Phoenix. The first meeting, led by Dr. Theodorou, will be held Aug. 18 at the AWCIM.

I believe this to be the beginning of something monumental. If we continue to work together to co-create these kinds of spaces for all parties to connect and discuss opportunities and challenges to wellness and wellbeing within the workplace, it can play a pivotal role in the larger vision to bridge the Banner and College of Medicine – Tucson communities, and create palpable change in our workplace culture.  I am inspired by the support of our own department, Banner leadership, and COM-T to prioritize wellness and wellbeing.

EXTRA: Wellbeing & wellness beyond the bedside

•    A future focus for the WellDOM Initiative will be to measure the impact and showcase our institution as one that prioritizes wellness. A quick literature search shows evidence that supports the benefits of physicians/advanced practice providers, or APPs, getting together outside of work to improve wellness (Banner Health’s nationally recognized CHIM, or Cultivating Happiness in Medicine, program is based in part on this). We have an opportunity to widen that by including trainees, medical students and interdisciplinary staff. 
•    For those interested, further tools in this arena can be found via the Action Collaborative on Clinician Well-being & Resilience from the National Academy of Medicine that got a boost during the round-the-clock highly stressful times of the COVID-19 pandemic. The program continues to promote the idea of “healthy providers, healthy patients” as a cornerstone of its own wellness initiative with events, newsletters, publications and other resources. It’s part of NAM’s National Plan for Health Workforce Well-Being.
•    The Association of American Medical Colleges, or AAMC, and the American Medical Association offer similar resources here and here, respectively. Medical student wellbeing resources can be found here and here. Likewise, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing offers guidance on a Nursing Well-Being & Leadership Toolkit. And the American Pharmacists Association provides an APhA Well-being Index for Pharmacy Personnel online tool that’s fully research validated.

NOTE: The next WellDOM Chess Club Meeting, is 5:30-8:30 p.m., Monday, Aug. 18, at the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine’s Iris Cantor Building, Room 160. Others are scheduled at same time and place, Sept. 8, Oct. 27, Nov. 17 and Dec. 8 – all Mondays. Learn more

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About the Author: A Tucson native, Serena J. Scott, MD, MBA, is an associate professor in the Division of General Internal Medicine, Geriatrics & Palliative Medicine and the University of Arizona Department of Medicine’s vice chair for faculty development and wellness. She holds a bachelor’s degree in biological anthropology from Northwestern University, and a medical doctorate and master’s in business administration degree from the University of Arizona in Tucson, earning both in 2011. She completed her internal medicine residency training at the University of Colorado in Aurora, Colorado, in 2014. She participated in the Society of General Internal Medicine-affiliated Association of Chiefs and Leaders of General Internal Medicine Leadership, Engagement, Access and Development Program in 2018. She won a Torchbearer Award from the U of A College of Medicine – Tucson’s Women In Medicine & Science Committee in 2023. And she was among five DOM faculty named in 2024 to the inaugural cohort of the Advanced Healthcare Leadership Academy, a reimagined version of the college’s Learning to Lead Program, hosted in collaboration with the U of A Eller College of Management’s Executive Education Program.