May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and an important time to reflect on what’s been done to improve the mental health and well-being of those working in graduate medical education (GME), and to focus efforts on how to build on recent improvements.
The good news: recent studies suggest that physicians are in a better place than they have been in the last few years. A study published April 9 in Mayo Clinical Proceedings indicates that burnout rates have been dropping among physicians and are at the same levels they were in 2011, when this group of researchers began studying the issue. A JAMA Psychiatry study published online in February showed that suicide rates among physicians overall were declining.
But all that positive news is tempered by some sobering realities. Even with the falling burnout rate, the burnout study still found that 42.2 percent of physicians surveyed experienced at least one sign of burnout. And the February 2025 study showed that while suicide rates have been declining among male physicians, those rates have increased among female physicians.
Sharing Resources, Highlighting Hope
Throughout the month, the ACGME will highlight its curated tools and resources, designed to help Sponsoring Institutions and programs identify and address mental health and well-being concerns in the GME community. The goal of this campaign is to remind the GME community that there are many resources available, and that, when implemented, they can make a positive impact on the lives of residents and fellows.
Each week in May, the ACGME will focus on a different topic:
- May 5-11: Combating Burnout
- May 12-18: Transitioning from medical school to residency
- May 19-25: Substance Use and Substance Use Disorders
- May 26-31: Thriving Through Adversity
Note: Many of these resources are housed in the ACGME’s digital learning platform, Learn at ACGME. Some resources are open access; others are available at no cost, but require a free Learn at ACGME account; and a few are proprietary.
A Long History of Dedication to Physician Well-Being
The ACGME has been at the forefront of addressing well-being among the health care workforce and continues to work to ensure that Sponsoring Institutions and programs provide residents, fellows, and others in GME with the tools, resources, and access to mental health and well-being resources.
In 2017, the ACGME revised its Common Program Requirements for all accredited residency and fellowship programs to address well-being more directly and comprehensively. The Requirements emphasize that psychological, emotional, and physical well-being are critical in the development of the competent, caring, and resilient physician.
Additionally, the ACGME has been a leader and partner in the National Academy of Medicine’s Action Collaborative on Clinician Well-Being and Resilience since its inception. This group has convened, published, and shaped the national conversation to raise the visibility of clinician anxiety, burnout, depression, stress, and suicide; improve baseline understanding of challenges to clinician well-being; and advance evidence-based, multidisciplinary solutions to improve patient care by caring for the caregiver.
The ACGME continues to conduct research on resident, fellow, and clinician well-being. These ongoing research efforts involve not only monitoring changes in the well-being of residents and fellows but also measuring the effectiveness of the well-being interventions being implemented at programs and institutions across the country. Other research on physician/clinician well-being has been published in The Journal of Graduate Medical Education.
The ACGME recognizes that mental health and physician well-being is a key cornerstone that improves the quality of clinical learning and care environments. We invite you to follow along this month as we share resources and information to support the overall health and well-being of physicians, and to access these tools throughout the year, whenever they are needed and helpful.