Introduction: Previous research has suggested an association between lack of sleep and well-being. Given higher rates of burnout among female clinicians, the Sutter Health “Joy of Work” team (a multidisciplinary group dedicated to improving organizational well-being) conducted a pilot among female clinicians in ambulatory services to assess factors associated with sleep, professional fulfillment, and intention to leave/reduce work hours. Methods: The intervention consisted of several components: an Oura ring (a wearable smart ring device that tracks activity, sleep, and heart rate); health coaches who sent text messages to participants and advised those participants with additional resources and questions; and three online group education sessions with the health coaches and a physician sleep expert to support sleep hygiene and sleep behavioral change. Participants used the Oura ring for 8-12 weeks. Baseline and post-intervention surveys and Oura ring data were collected upon participants’ agreement. Fisher’s Exact test and Unpaired t-tests were used to assess associations between sleep and wellness indicators. Linear mixed-effect models were conducted to capture the weekly change of Oura ring sleep outcomes. Results: Twenty-six clinicians completed the baseline survey and 19 completed the post-intervention survey. All 26 participants were female and composed of 23 physicians and 3 advanced practice clinicians. When asked if they believed they improved their sleep during the pilot experience, 78.9% reported yes/maybe. 82.2% reported improvements on their well-being. Regarding Oura ring sleep outcomes, the average nightly awake time and light sleep time were statistically significantly reduced by 1 minute and 3 minutes over the weeks. In comparison, the average deep sleep time was statistically significantly increased by 1 minute. Conclusion: Understanding sleep patterns and health education on improving sleep quality may be associated with an increase in self-reported perceptions of overall well-being and professional fulfilment. The subjective improvements in well-being were combined with slight objective improvement in deep sleep time. Additional research is needed to understand the differences between subjective and objective measures of sleep and clinician well-being.
This is not just a story of kidney transplantation in a tertiary care hospital in a tier-2 city of South India. It is all about a true clinical journey of resilience, where a young woman with congenital hearing loss, battling chronic kidney disease, discovered hope, understanding, and companionship through a physician assistant's compassionate communication.
Introduction: Clinician well-being remains a persistent challenge, with ongoing burnout and psychological distress despite efforts by systems and individuals. This Journal of Wellness annual review covers studies published in 2025. Methods: The Editors searched PubMed and Google Scholar for prospective and interventional studies / clinical trials in humans, with focus on well-being. Authors utilized artificial intelligence (AI)–based large language model (LLM) (ChatGPT, OpenAITM) to assist with preliminary identification of relevant studies, however authors noted significant AI-associated errors and outright misrepresentations requiring hand curated product generation and manual PubMed searches. Literature in Review: We continue to appreciate a shift toward system-level and scalable interventions. Randomized trials of AI and workflow tools targeted documentation burden and efficiency and had perceived improvements in efficiency and documentation quality. Digital and mobile health interventions, specifically resilience training and mindfulness platforms, showed modest but scalable effects. Coaching and peer-support interventions demonstrated improvements in physician well-being. Mindfulness-based approaches remain common, but emerging work in psychotherapy highlights overlap between burnout and mental health conditions. Conclusion: Recent literature continues to include individual and system level focus to address burnout and enhance flourishing of healthcare professionals. Addressing structural drivers of burnout may offer the most meaningful improvements in well-being.
