Assessing Wellness in Psychology: Examples from Medicine

Wellness is increasingly becoming an area of research and clinical focus among health care professionals. At the same time, it is not entirely clear what constitutes attainable wellness goals, particularly among individuals in demanding professions. The focus of this paper is to review recent research on physician wellness and draw comparisons to psychologists. We discuss our research findings that physician wellness encompasses three factors, Career Purpose, (lack of) Distress, and Cognitive Flexibility. The hope is that psychologists, who are increasingly moving into medical practice settings, will be able to benefit from this different perspective.