Outdoor orientation trips have seen success in undergraduate1 and medical school2 settings, creating positive transitions for students through strong peer relationships and improved educational readiness. Creating Adventurous and Mindful Physicians Entering Residency (CAMPER) sought to bridge the gap between medical school and residency by offering a wilderness orientation program to students starting residency that is impactful, replicable, and has become highly sought after by programs across the country.
CAMPER is an opt-in, multi-day, wilderness backpacking orientation program designed to foster a culture of support among incoming residents through outdoor experiences. The program incorporates team-building activities, meaning-in-medicine exercises, mindfulness practices, and shared vulnerability experiences to facilitate social connections between residents. Since 2022, CAMPER has hosted 8 trips with 104 incoming residents across 3 institutions and 7 residency programs. Participants were invited to complete pre- and post- CAMPER surveys asking about comfort and excitement about starting residency, and to evaluate their experience with the orientation program.
Participant feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, with 95.1% of respondents (N=41) selecting ‘Strongly Agree’ when asked if they felt more connected to their co-interns after attending CAMPER. Additionally, 97.6% of residents indicated they “Agree” or “Strongly Agree” that the program should be offered annually, and 90.2% expressed similar support for expanding CAMPER to other residency programs. Beyond high resident satisfaction, CAMPER continues to grow with increasing interest from additional residency programs seeking to implement the program for their trainees (Figure 1). Given the success and the interest in further expansion from both past participants and residency program directors, CAMPER clearly offers a replicable, personal, and impactful model for pre-residency development and wellness.
Pre-residency wilderness orientation trips conducted across multiple specialties at three institutions have shown promise in helping residents feel more connected to their peers and more prepared for residency. CAMPER offers a highly replicable and impactful model for fostering professional collaboration and development, building a culture of support during a critical phase of physician training. This experience has proven both meaningful to participants and valuable to their residency programs.
Figure 1
1. Gass MA, Garvey DE, Sugerman DA. The long-term effects of a first-year student wilderness orientation program. J Exper Ed. 2003;26(1):34-40.
2. Bernard, A., Kercheval, J., Blaty, A. D., & Burrows, H. Creating adventurous and mindful physicians: Expanding wilderness orientation programs to medical school. Michigan Journal of Medicine, 3(1), Article 9
3. Kercheval, J. B., Bernard, A., Berlin, H., Byl, N., Marois, B., Puttagunta, R., Holman, E., & Bridge, P. D. (2022). The Impact of a Novel Outdoor Orientation Program on Incoming Medical Students. Journal of Experiential Education, 45(3), 276-294.
Figure 1.