Medicine and other health professions demand excellence, precision, and confidence. This "culture of perfection" is introduced during training and reinforced by explicit and implicit messaging. The medical sciences are also fields where conflict, difficult emotions, imperfect interactions, and bad outcomes are frequent; a career that inevitably includes "very bad days." Trainees without strategies to address and recover from "very bad days" may resort to self-blame, avoidance, and depersonalization--maladaptive strategies that undermine students' performance, wellbeing, the quality of patient care and team relationships. We believe health professions students can and should be equipped with formal training to overcome the personal obstacles and conflicts they will encounter during training. We offer OUCH! (Ownership, Understanding, Curiosity, Healing) - a practical framework to guide trainees through a reflective and constructive process to overcoming these challenges. This will be an interactive workshop—participants will have the chance to use the framework themselves and to plan how they will share this tool with trainees in their local setting.

 

Session Objectives: