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ForwardWell-Being Month 2026: Improv-ing Healthcare: Using the Principles of Improv Comedy to Create Meaningful Change for All
February 3, 2026
These activities aim to raise awareness of burnout among healthcare professionals and present strategies for promoting resilience, which will improve practitioner health and, ultimately, patient outcomes.
Academic medicine rewards expertise, speed, and certainty, yet our hardest moments require presence, adaptability, and trust. This session applies core improv principles to clinical care, teaching, and teamwork, offering practical relational tools for navigating uncertainty, emotional load, and complexity. It is not about being funny or performing, but about using improv as a structured, evidence-informed framework for communication, connection, and clinician well-being.
Academic medicine rewards expertise, speed, and certainty, yet our hardest moments require presence, adaptability, and trust. This session applies core improv principles to clinical care, teaching, and teamwork, offering practical relational tools for navigating uncertainty, emotional load, and complexity. It is not about being funny or performing, but about using improv as a structured, evidence-informed framework for communication, connection, and clinician well-being.
Target Audience
This activity is designed for physicians and other healthcare professionals at the University of Chicago and its affiliates, who are dedicated to promoting well-being in themselves and others.
Learning Objectives
After this activity, participants will be able to:
- Identify how perfectionism, cognitive overload, and intolerance of uncertainty contribute to clinician burnout and breakdowns in care delivery.
- Describe core principles of improv that support presence, adaptability, and trust in healthcare interactions.
- Apply improv-based communication strategies to support patient-centered care during clinical interactions.
- Demonstrate relational techniques to support psychological safety within interprofessional teams.
- Select small, behavior-level changes that support clinician well-being in daily practice.
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Online Webinar
Chicago, IL
United States
WANT TO KNOW MORE?
Visit the University of Chicago Graduate Medical Education Department's website!
ACCESSIBILITY The University of Chicago is committed to providing equal access appropriate to need and circumstances and complies fully with legal requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act. If you are in need of special accommodation, please contact our office at (773) 702-6760 or via email.
The University of Chicago reserves the right to cancel or postpone this conference due to unforeseen circumstances. In the unlikely event this activity must be cancelled or postponed, the registration fee will be refunded; however, the University of Chicago is not responsible for any related costs, charges, or expenses to participants, including fees assessed by airline/travel/lodging agencies.
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO FACULTY
Wendy Schofer, MD, FAAP, DipABLM, PCC, TIPC
Dual-board certified pediatrician and lifestyle physician, improv comedian, and founder of Family in Focus®
Dual-board certified pediatrician and lifestyle physician, improv comedian, and founder of Family in Focus®
Disclosure Declarations
As a provider accredited by the ACCME, the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine asks everyone in a position to control the content of an educational activity to disclose all financial relationships with any ineligible companies. This includes any entity whose primary business is producing, marketing, selling, re-selling, or distributing healthcare products used by or on patients. Financial relationships are relevant if a financial relationship, in any amount, exists between the person in control of content and an ineligible company during the past 24 months, and the content of the education is related to the products of an ineligible company with whom the person has a financial relationship. Mechanisms are in place to identify and mitigate any relevant financial relationships before the start of the activity.
Additionally, the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine requires Authors to identify investigational products or off-label uses of products regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration at first mention and where appropriate in the content.
As a provider accredited by the ACCME, the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine asks everyone in a position to control the content of an educational activity to disclose all financial relationships with any ineligible companies. This includes any entity whose primary business is producing, marketing, selling, re-selling, or distributing healthcare products used by or on patients. Financial relationships are relevant if a financial relationship, in any amount, exists between the person in control of content and an ineligible company during the past 24 months, and the content of the education is related to the products of an ineligible company with whom the person has a financial relationship. Mechanisms are in place to identify and mitigate any relevant financial relationships before the start of the activity.
Additionally, the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine requires Authors to identify investigational products or off-label uses of products regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration at first mention and where appropriate in the content.
Physician Credit
The University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
The University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
The University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine designates this live activity for a maximum of 1 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
Other Participant Credit
Other participants will receive a Certificate of Participation. For information on the applicability and acceptance of Certificates of Participation for educational activities certified for AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™ from organizations accredited by the ACCME, please consult your professional licensing board.
Other participants will receive a Certificate of Participation. For information on the applicability and acceptance of Certificates of Participation for educational activities certified for AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™ from organizations accredited by the ACCME, please consult your professional licensing board.
The credit claiming process will close one month after the activity ends. Requests to claim credit after one month may incur additional fees.
Registration: This course is only open to University of Chicago affiliates.
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