Key Takeaways
- An anonymous donor gave $20 million to Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine to establish the Healthcare Professionals’ Wellbeing Academy.
- The Academy will initially support medical students, resident physicians and early-career nurses across Hackensack Meridian Health.
- Programming will include education, coaching, peer support, practical skill-building and mental health resources within medical education and physician training.
- The Academy will be developed over six years, with plans to evaluate its programs and expand wellbeing resources across the Hackensack Meridian Health network.
- You can learn more about the Wellbeing program or support medical education at GiveHMH.org/SchoolofMed.
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The Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine today announced a transformational $20 million gift from an anonymous donor to establish a pioneering Wellbeing program. This landmark donation will fund comprehensive wellness resources and support systems designed to directly combat the burnout crisis among medical professionals.
The new Healthcare Professionals’ Wellbeing Academy will create a culture of holistic health and resilience within the medical community. Recognizing that burnout among healthcare professionals is at an all-time high — which deeply impacts both the mental health of physicians and nurses and the quality of patient care — the program is urgently needed to support the caregivers of tomorrow.
“Significant philanthropy, like the extraordinary generosity exhibited by this anonymous donor, is absolutely vital to advancing our mission,” said Robert C. Garrett, FACHE, chief executive officer of Hackensack Meridian Health. “Gifts of this magnitude confirm that what we are doing across the entire organization is working, because donors truly believe in us and our vision for the future of healthcare. We are deeply thankful to this donor for their incredible support. It is essential that we ensure our physicians are caring for themselves just as well as they are caring for our community, and this groundbreaking program guarantees that Hackensack Meridian Health will have the resources to do so.”
A network-wide initiative, the goal of the Wellbeing Academy is to strengthen the wellness and resilience of the next generation of healthcare professionals. Launching with a focus on medical students, resident physicians and early-career nurses, the Academy will provide ongoing education, coaching, peer support and practical skill-building to help clinicians navigate the demands of healthcare throughout their careers. It will be implemented by integrating proactive mental health resources directly into the medical education curriculum and ongoing physician training.
“We are profoundly grateful to this visionary donor for recognizing a critical need within the medical profession and stepping forward with such incredible generosity,” said Jeffrey Boscamp, M.D., president and dean of the Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine. “Combating burnout among our physicians and students is not just a matter of personal wellbeing; it is absolutely essential to the future of healthcare. This $20 million gift allows us to prioritize the mental and emotional health of our medical professionals so they can continue to deliver the highest quality of care to the patients who depend on them.”
The demanding culture of medicine has long taken a hidden toll on providers, making dedicated wellbeing initiatives a crucial evolution in the field. By embedding these resources early in training and professional practice, the Academy represents a shift from treating clinician wellbeing as a response to burnout to making it a foundational component of health professions education and practice. Beginning with those earliest in their careers and expanding over time, the goal is to create a culture in which caring for caregivers is embedded throughout Hackensack Meridian Health — and ultimately develop a model that can inform how other health systems approach healthcare professional wellbeing.
“As someone who has navigated the intense demands of surgery and medicine, I have seen firsthand the toll burnout takes on even the most dedicated professionals. I have experienced those pressures myself,” said Howard M. Ross, M.D., Chair of Surgery at the Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine and surgeon-in-chief of Hackensack University Medical Center. “I am incredibly passionate about this program. Developing skills required to support caregiver wellbeing is a necessary step forward in medical education and practice. This initiative will quite literally save careers and lives.”
The impact of this monumental donation is expected to reach far beyond the School of Medicine as the initiative develops. The Academy will be developed over six years, beginning with the infrastructure and leadership required to launch the initiative and progressively introducing programming for medical students, residents and nurses. As the model matures, Hackensack Meridian Health plans to evaluate outcomes, expand programming across the network and share findings, curricula and best practices with other institutions. Success will be evaluated through measures including participation and engagement, burnout and wellbeing indicators, retention, leadership development, interdisciplinary collaboration and scholarly output.
“This phenomenal $20 million contribution is a testament to the power of philanthropy in driving systemic change in healthcare,” said Joyce P. Hendricks, president and chief development officer of the Hackensack Meridian Health Foundation. “We extend our deepest gratitude to the anonymous donor for this monumental gift. While this initiative is launching at the School of Medicine, its blueprint will be vital as we scale wellbeing resources to support all of our healthcare providers in the future, particularly our future physicians, residents, and nurses, who face their own extraordinary pressures on the front lines of patient care.”
This $20 million gift brings Hackensack Meridian Health Foundation significantly closer to the completion of our historic $1 billion Be The Difference campaign, the largest fundraising initiative ever undertaken by a healthcare network in New Jersey. The campaign is built on four core pillars: enhancing the delivery of patient care, accelerating groundbreaking research and discovery, expanding access to care for all and revolutionizing medical education while supporting the nursing profession. The new Wellbeing program directly advances this fourth pillar, ensuring that those who care for our communities are cared for themselves.
To learn more about the Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine, the new Wellbeing program or to make a donation to support the future of medical education, please visit GiveHMH.org/SchoolofMed.