FoMD Well Lab

The FoMD Well Lab is the research aspect of the FoMD Well office. 

Five projects were started in 2022 under the FOMD Well Lab. These are a collaboration between students and faculty. Details on these projects and upcoming presentations can be found below

Vision Statement: The FoMD Well Lab, through our scholarship and advocacy, leads the development and fostering of health promoting environments where people thrive.

Mission Statement: Through our program of scholarship, the FoMD Well Lab’s mission is to lead efforts to strengthen medical learner and physician wellness, locally, nationally and internationally. We prioritize supporting learner-led projects that aim to advance efforts to make systemic changes that renew the culture of medicine.

Current Projects

Health Promoting Learning Environments (HPLE)

Integrated, strategic, efforts aimed at changing the culture of medicine have been challenging to develop and adopt. The Okanagan Charter on Health Promoting Universities and Colleges is a widely-adopted international framework focused on health-promoting learning environments (HPLEs). HPLEs infuse health principles into all aspects of operations, practices, mandates, and business. Our study sought to elucidate factors that could foster an HPLE within medical education as the University of Alberta (UA) seeks to develop an HPLE strategic plan.

Exploring Imposter Syndrome and the interplay with vulnerability and failure amongst medical students

Imposter Syndrome (IS), a phenomenon where individuals attribute successes to external factors aside from themselves, is reported to be high amongst medical students, with correlations to decreased wellbeing. Despite significant discussion on imposter syndrome, little work has been done to understand how medical students experience IS, the interplay of IS with how vulnerability is perceived in the learning environment and how IS may shape individuals’ experiences/perceptions of failure.  

Exploring medical culture from the perspective of medical students in clerkship
Despite frequent reference to “culture change” in discussions surrounding wellbeing in medicine and medical education, little work has been done to elucidate how medical students conceptualize culture, how they believe this impacts wellbeing and their perspectives on culture change. This study aimed to gain a deeper understanding of how clerkship medical students conceptualize the culture in medicine, and determine what influences and shapes this perception.
Achievement Goal Theory (AGT) outlines goal setting approaches

AGT notes that individuals can be trained towards more adaptive goal approaches, as certain orientations are associated with increased resilience and performance ability. To understand the specific ways in which goal setting behaviours affect the medical student experience, we aimed to conduct a qualitative exploration of their goal setting processes, including the types of goals they set, student awareness of their goal setting behaviours and how this process may affect their wellbeing and overall learner experience

Performance Mental Skills (PerMS)

Between championship games, Olympic trials, code responses, and crucial conversations, high performance sports and residency training share many parallels. Which mental skills are needed for each circumstance?  Performance mental skills (PerMS) refer to the cognitive, behavioural and emotional regulation skills required to promote healthy and adaptive mental and physical states prior to, during, and after performance-oriented tasks. These skills include systematic and effective goal setting practices, promoting a mastery-based learning approach, adapting an intrinsic motivational model, and self-regulation skills. There is a significant role for these skills to foster growth mindsets and help learners achieve their greatest potential, complementing the Competence-by-Design approach? Evidence to date for PerMS in medical education supports improved performance in technical skills and high stress situations. The gap is that residency education lacks a comprehensive approach to developing these skills. 

Upcoming presentations

  • ICAM 2023: Medical students from the following research teams will conduct oral presentations on the findings of their research at the International Conference on Academic Medicine in Quebec City, April 2023
    • Health Promoting Learning Environments
    • Imposter Syndrome amongst medical students
    • Medical culture from the perspective of medical students
    • Acheivement Goal Theory