We've all heard the term "burn-out" in the last few years - the chronic stress from your job.But the healthcare industry has been hit especially hard. The American Medical Association says 63% of physicians are burning out.Kansas City University is implementing a program to help its future doctors thrive. And it's called, appropriately, Thrive. It's a pilot program funded with a $1.6 million grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration, a branch of the federal government's Health and Human Services.At Kansas City University, Medical School looks like long lessons with lots of information and lounge chairs with Virtual Reality Headsets. It's learning about parasites, but also enjoying popsicles and bringing pets to campus. It's learning about internal medicine - and intramural basketball. This week, the students led a Mental Health Wellness week that included all of those fun things.But the school makes a conscientious effort to keep that "take a break" mentality year round. Dr. Carlton Abner is the Associate Provost, and the founder of the THRIVE program. As a healthcare provider himself, he knew burnout was rampant in the industry, and he knew medical school attracts high-performers with a high probability of burnout themselves.""Those folks often hear you should've known better," he said. "We treat them like they should've known better, because you were at a graduate or medical school level of intelligence; so we just assume that you know better."Abner continued, "instead of assuming that you know better, we're going to teach you the skills that we think are going to be crucial to your survival in residency and beyond. Because here's the problem: one in five healthcare providers right now are thinking about leaving healthcare delivery."That could mean fewer primary care providers and longer wait times at emergency rooms. "It's going to affect everyone eventually, if we don't fix it. I'm starting very early in that process here with the students. Once they get here, we're gonna try and do our best to take care of them, as far as resilience is concerned."That resiliency comes from taking a break, Abner explained. "Healthcare delivery as a team sport. So everything that got you here is not going to make you a good healthcare clinician – because that's a team sport. So you do need to take a break. so on that break, you not only get to turn your brain off, but you get to be self reflective," he explained."You get to see where you blew it, and where you were winning, and ask yourself 'How can I expand upon that, how can I get better?' But you can't do any of that until you come up for air and you take a break. And, particularly high performers, need that permission to take a break."Burnout can start really early, Abner learned. That's why Abner teaches the THRIVE course during KCU's orientation. Second year med student Amir Rosavi started KCU in the midst of the pandemic. And then he started the Student Wellness Council, because he saw his fellow students "spending all day studying, and it's crazy, but within a few weeks people already feeling burned out in medical school." Then, this week, the students started their own Mental Health Wellness Week - which included those basketball games and popsicles. "So they continue to feel like themselves and maintain a sense of self identity, and not sort of get lost in this avalanche is medical school, or graduate school. There's enough stressors as there as is, and we want to reduce burnout rates, and there's this idea of capacity."Capacity is something Christian Bell is learning, along with everything else a first year med students learns. "Before the THRIVE program, I felt like I just would've said, 'well OK, tired Christian, you got a suck it up, keep going, put the best foot forward. You can't show any weakness to anybody.' But no, it's definitely OK."It's something he is glad he learned early. He's a Kansas City native, and wants to be a doctor in his hometown; he's carrying a lot on his shoulders. "It was for us to understand early on that it was important for us to take time for yourself and understand that medical is a very rigorous program, and there are going to be challenges.""But you need to take time for yourself and not feel guilty about it - because that's some thing as a medical student, you definitely feel guilty about - that you always need to be working or putting my best foot forward. Being a part of that program, definitely taught us the different tools necessary to take time for ourselves."Abner is tracking how impactful the THRIVE program is - though he hopes its effects will last well beyond medical school.