Session Design Submission Review

Yes

• Citizenship and Global Responsibility
• Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI)

Difficult conversations are inevitable in surgery, whether breaking bad news to families, supporting a colleague after a critical incident, or acknowledging one’s own emotional distress. Yet surgical training rarely provides structured opportunities to learn the skills of emotional communication and peer support. This workshop consistns of a 90-minute experiential workshop designed to give residents, fellows, faculty mentors, and simulation educators practical frameworks and tools to navigate these challenging moments. The session will integrate role play, reflective writing, and case-based discussion to move beyond theory into practice. By the end of this workshop, participants will be better equipped to communicate with empathy, support peers in moments of vulnerability, and embed structured reflection into surgical training environments, skills that strengthen both individual well-being and collective culture.

90-minute workshop

Yes

Yes

Learn emotionally intelligent communication frameworks for acknowledging distress, validating emotions, and fostering psychological safety

Practice peer support strategies to use with colleagues during and after critical incidents, with attention to listening skills, boundary setting, and knowing when to escalate concerns

Apply reflection and debriefing tools to facilitate both personal resilience and team-level recovery following emotionally charged events

Gain simulation-ready teaching methods that can be adapted for residency curricula, wellness programming, or faculty development at their home institutions