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Welcome to the UF College of Medicine Wellness Programs!

The mission of the University of Florida College of Medicine (UFCOM) is to improve health care in Florida, our nation, and the world through excellence and consistently superior leadership in education, clinical care, discovery, and service.

These lofty goals require that each member of the UFCOM perform at his or her best. Recognizing that administrators, faculty, staff, and trainees will reach their fullest potential only when they are engaged with team members and colleagues, find joy and meaning in their work, and are physically and emotionally healthy, the UFCOM is committed to promoting well-being among all its members. The UF College of Medicine Wellness Programs were established to support the UFCOM in achieving the Quadruple Aim (Bodenheimer & Sinsky, 2014) of:

Square chart split in four equal parts. Top left square says enhancing patient experience, top right square says reducing cost, bottom left square says improving population health, and bottom right says increasing provider satisfaction and wellbeing with a star around it. This is a model named the Quadruple Aim.

Dr. Lisa Merlo, a licensed clinical psychologist and Professor of Psychiatry, serves as the Director of Wellness Programs. She works with the Office of Educational Affairs, the Office of Graduate Medical Education, the Office of Faculty Affairs & Professional Development, UFCOM Human Resources , GatorCare , UF-UF Health Wellness, the UF Employee Assistance Program, and others to enhance the culture of wellness at UFCOM and to provide support to our trainees, faculty, and staff. The Director of Wellness Programs is available to: assist with wellness needs assessments; provide feedback and evidence-based recommendations; consult with UFCOM faculty, staff, and trainees regarding the development of wellness-related policies, programs, and research projects; and refer individuals and units to available resources.

Pie chart separated into three equal sides. Top left side is Culture of Wellness in red, top right is Workplace Efficiency in red, and bottom middle is Individual Factors in blue. There is a white middle circle named Occupational Well-Being. Three black double sided arrows are depicting the reciprocal influence that each of the outer pieces have on each other. This model is called the Stanford Model of Occupational Well-Being.

Our approach to wellness promotion is based in the Stanford WellMD Center conceptual model (Bohman, Dyrbye, Sinsky, et al., 2017; Bohman et al., 2025), which demonstrates that occupational well-being is supported and enhanced by three reciprocal domains: Culture of Wellness, Workplace Efficiency, and Individual Factors.

Ongoing initiatives aim to improve the culture of wellness and workplace efficiency, and a variety of programs are in place to support the wellbeing of the UFCOM community. Check out “What’s New in Wellness” for some examples.

Finally, we view self-care as a professional responsibility, and provide many resources for UFCOM employees and trainees to practice a healthy lifestyle.

Please take some time to explore our site and learn more about the ways that UFCOM can support your well-being and professional fulfillment. In particular, be sure to review the Wellness Resource Hub and consider completing an individualized wellness prescription!

We welcome your comments and suggestions regarding additional ways to promote well-being and professional satisfaction at UFCOM. Please use the contact form on our homepage to share your ideas.

References:

Bodenheimer, T., & Sinsky, C. (2014). From triple to quadruple aim: Care of the patient requires care of the provider. Annals of Family Medicine, 12(6), 573-576.

Bohman B, Dyrbye L, Sinsky C, Linzer M, Olson K, Babbott S, Murphy ML, deVries P, Hamidi M, Trockel M. (2017). Physician Well-Being: The Reciprocity of Practice Efficiency, Culture of Wellness, and Personal Resilience. NEJM Catalyst. https://catalyst.nejm.org/physician-well-being-efficiency-wellness-resilience/.

Bohman, B. D., Makowski, M. S., Wang, H., Menon, N. K., Shanafelt, T. D., & Trockel, M. T. (2025). Empirical Assessment of Well-Being: The Stanford Model of Occupational Well-Being. Academic Medicines, 100(8), 960–967. https://doi.org/10.1097/ACM.0000000000006025