Tenth International Conference on Health, Wellness & Society

Abstract

The mental health crisis facing physicians and physician trainees has called for interventions that target medical trainees early on in their medical training. While an overwhelming body of research shows that we feel negative emotions longer and often more intensely than positive emotions, we can actually train our brains to become more positive. By regularly practicing gratitude, our brains naturally begin to notice more positive aspects of our lives, leaving us happier and healthier. Furthermore, gratitude builds resiliency, which allows us to better handle the negative situations that come our way. As evidence shows that positivity, happiness, and sense of gratitude can increase after a short period of regular gratitude practice, the “Attitude of Gratitude 30-Day Challenge” was designed to promote resiliency and overall well-being among medical students. The Short Form Gratitude Resentment and Appreciation Test (GRAT) measures an individual’s dispositional gratitude, and has been shown to have good internal consistency, factorial validity, construct validity, and temporal stability. To evaluate program efficacy, baseline GRAT scores were compared to post-challenge GRAT scores. Dispositional gratitude scores increased significantly among participants overall. This program was an effective way to engage professional health students in wellness programming that required minimal time and effort. These findings suggest that simple wellness interventions, such as the Attitude of Gratitude 30-Day Challenge, may increase joy, happiness, and resilience among medical students or similar populations. Similar interventions may be effective in addressing the mental health crisis among the medical professional community.