Mental Health Awareness Month is an opportunity to evaluate our own well-being, check in on those around us, and examine the systems and cultures that shape well-being.. In graduate medical education (GME), the conversation around well-being has matured. The question is no longer whether burnout exists, but how programs and institutions can use data thoughtfully to understand it and respond in meaningful ways. Improving well-being in GME requires a systems-oriented approach, informed by data, and grounded in an understanding of the environments in which resident and fellow physicians learn and work.
What the Data Are Telling Us About Burnout and Well-Being
A session at the 2026 ACGME Annual Educational Conference, Enhancing Well-Being Through Systems and Culture Change: The Critical Role of Environmental Metrics, emphasized that cultures of well-being are not created by individual resilience alone. They are built and sustained through organizational commitment, structural supports, and fairness in how work is organized and evaluated.
Presenters Nick Yaghmour, MPP and Stuart Slavin, MD, MEd from the ACGME, and K. Elliott Higgins III, MD from UCLA Health discussed data highlighting several important trends. Residents and fellows continue to report higher levels of burnout and lower professional fulfillment than faculty members. Factors such as workload, documentation demands, autonomy, and time pressure consistently emerge as contributors to distress. Importantly, organizational justice - whether individuals perceive systems and leadership as fair - was identified as one of the strongest predictors of burnout. These findings reinforce that well-being challenges are often rooted in systems, not individuals.
This systems-focused perspective aligns with broader well-being research, including work from the Well-Being Influencers Survey for Healthcare (WISH), which emphasizes that meaningful improvement in physician well-being depends on system-level change, rather than placing responsibility on individuals.
Mapping Burnout to Inform Action
Another well-being-centered session at the conference, Mapping Burnout in GME: National Profiles of Residents, Fellows, and Faculty Members, further reinforced the role of data as a tool for awareness and improvement, not diagnosis. Dr. Slavin and Mr. Yaghmour shared national trends showing that while their engagement remains relatively high, emotional exhaustion is widely distributed across residents and fellows. In other words, many remain committed to their work while simultaneously experiencing significant strain.
Dr. Slavin and Mr. Yaghmour emphasized that these data are not intended to label individuals or programs. Instead, they are meant to help programs and institutions understand patterns within their learning environments. By “mapping” burnout nationally and locally, leaders can better identify where interventions may be needed and where resources could be focused.
Data can guide action, but it cannot capture every nuance. Leaders are encouraged to use survey results as a starting point, pairing quantitative data with qualitative input and ongoing dialogue to gain a more complete picture of well-being within their programs and institutions.
Support Through Key Transitions
A key transition time is approaching as the academic year nears conclusion for the GME community. Graduations, onboarding of new residents and fellows, and changes in clinical responsibility can all affect mental health and well-being.
The well-being resources available in the ACGME’s digital learning platform, Learn at the ACGME, are designed to support both individuals and programs during these critical periods. Resources like Mental Health and Well-Being During Transitions highlight common stressors and offer practical strategies for navigating change. Other tools, including Enhancing Well-Being: Managing Toxic Perfectionism and Other Problematic Mindsets and Overcoming Barriers to Mental Health Care for Residents and Fellows, address challenges that frequently intersect with burnout, but may be less visible or harder to discuss.
These resources are most effective when integrated into a broader, program-level commitment to well-being, one that normalizes seeking help, addresses systemic contributors to stress, and recognizes that well-being is dynamic.
Moving Forward
Mental Health Awareness Month is not about quick fixes or one-size-fits-all solutions. As the recent ACGME conference sessions emphasized, advancing well-being in GME requires sustained attention to data, systems, and culture. It requires listening carefully to residents, fellows, and faculty members; resisting assumptions; and being willing to adapt when the data point to areas of concern.
By combining reliable data, thoughtful interpretation, and accessible educational resources, programs and institutions can move from awareness to action, creating learning environments that support both excellence in education and the well-being of everyone who contributes to it.
Explore well-being resources and educational offerings on the Well-Being page in Learn at the ACGME.