Chair's Spotlight: Vandana Nagpal, MD

In this month’s Chair’s Spotlight, we highlight the work of Vandana Nagpal, MD, and her efforts leading the Wellness Program for the UMass Internal Medicine Residency.

The prolonged pandemic we have been working and living through has brought increased attention to the vulnerabilities of our caregivers and especially our trainees. Several factors such as time demands, a lack of control, and poor program support, among others, can contribute to burnout for our residents, which may interfere with personal wellness and patient care leading to negative impacts on both.  

To help address these challenges, the Wellness Program for the UMass Internal Medicine Residency was initially developed in 2018 and has continued to grow in its importance since the start of the pandemic. Multiple interventions have been implemented including the creation of the Wellness Committee, which is currently co-chaired by Internal Medicine residents, Hatim Vajihi and Benjamin Tanenbaum. The Wellness Committee offers a safe place for residents to share concerns; in addition, we developed a peer buddy program for incoming interns and implemented quarterly group meetings with a health psychologist for each postgraduate year, and weekly Thursday morning 5-minute reflections, among other activities.

“We hope to enhance residents’ overall sense of well-being through their improved self-awareness, peer support and increased sense of community”, said Dr. Nagpal of the program. “We have seen the positive impact of these activities reflected in our annual ACGME surveys and we will continue to look for ways to improve through resident engagement and feedback.” 

Dr. Nagpal is a Clinician, Associate Program Director of the Palliative Medicine Fellowship, and Associate Chief and Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Palliative Care at UMass Memorial Health (UMMH) and UMass Chan Medical School (UMass Chan). She earned her medical degree in 1996 from Dayanand Medical College and Hospital in Punjab, India, and completed her internal medicine residency at State University of New York in Buffalo, New York in 2003. After practicing at hospitals in North Dakota and Pennsylvania, she joined as a physician and faculty member at UMMH/UMass Chan in 2014. She is the recipient of several honors and awards. Most recently, in 2021, she received the Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award from the Arnold P. Gold Foundation and was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine.