CIR/SEIU Fights for Resident Physician Wellness, Members Testify on Grueling Conditions and Mental Health Struggles

NYC Health + Hospitals resident physicians are organizing through the Committee of Interns and Residents and demanding change to the root drivers of resident burnout, depression, and suicide. Long before the COVID-19 crisis, rampant long work hours, cultures of hazing and bullying, student debt and a lack of mental health services in residency put these frontline physicians in danger across the country. On September 24, members testified at a historic NYC Council hearing called by Councilmember Carlina Rivera (D-Manhattan) following three deaths since last summer among medical residents in training at Lincoln Hospital in The Bronx. Members detailed the grueling conditions, burnout and stress endemic to residency programs, and called for the City to intervene. Read more in the NY Daily News and THE CITY, and click here to watch video of the hearing. (Pictured: CIR NY regional VP Dr. Oluyemi Omotoso testifies at the hearing.)