"You've Got Gratitude!"- A Multispecialty and Multi-institution Program Encouraging Expressions of Gratitude

OBJECTIVE: Efforts to improve physician well-being have focused on gratitude, which predicts health and happiness. Despite reported benefits, expressions of gratitude in healthcare can seem infrequent. Here, we describe Gratitude-Grams, an intervention to cultivate expressions of gratitude throughout a department. METHODS/APPROACH: Piloted in our Department of Surgery and adopted by others, Gratitude-Grams employs a web-based platform (Qualtrics). Program feed-back was solicited during teaching conferences using an anonymous department survey. RESULTS: Gratitude-Grams streamlines and encourages expressions of gratitude while minimizing maintenance, cost, and time. The platform has been highly utilized and well-received in our Department of Surgery. CONCLUSION: Expressing and receiving gratitude has been shown to be critical for well-being. Gratitude Grams is a highly utilized, simple, and attainable system to support expressions of gratitude and is ready for rapid implementation. (c) 2023 Association of Program Directors in Surgery. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)