Yale Part 2 Customer Story

Yale New Haven Health and Yale School of Medicine partnered with WILL Interactive to address the growing mental health and burnout crisis among clinicians. Together, they developed The Thriving Clinician, an interactive training course grounded in extensive research, real-world clinician experiences, and expert input. Despite the challenges of COVID-19, the project team successfully produced a compelling, scenario-based program that promotes resilience, reduces stigma around seeking help, and supports long-term career sustainability in healthcare.

Key Highlights

Conducted 30+ clinician focus groups and interviews across four hospitals
Identified learning objectives and designed realistic, evidence-based training content
Managed production logistics and safety during in-person filming amid the COVID-19 pandemic
Delivered an engaging, accredited course addressing burnout, mental health, and retention

The Need

Yale New Haven Health is the second largest employer in Connecticut with more than 31,000 employees and is one of the leading medical organizations in the world.

Chartered in 1810, Yale School of Medicine is one of the world’s leading centers for biomedical research, advanced clinical care, and medical education.
Yale recognized in 2019 that for the nation’s healthcare industry to care for patients with compassion and excellence, it was critical to address an alarming rise in clinician burnout, suicide, and mental health challenges. These challenges threatened the very foundations of clinical care across a variety of settings and communities.

The Answer

Yale partnered with WILL Interactive to create The Thriving Clinician, a powerful, research-based training course that addresses burnout, mental health, and resilience among clinicians. Built from extensive focus groups and expert input, the program delivers real-world scenarios and practical strategies to support well-being and career sustainability. Despite COVID-19 challenges, the course was completed and is now widely praised for its authenticity, impact, and ability to drive meaningful change in healthcare.

Addressing What Matters for Their Business

A Powerful Response to the Clinician Mental Health Crisis

After collaborating with WILL to develop Common Ground Healthcare, YNHH and Yale School of Medicine decided to further the partnership to address clinician burnout, retention challenges, suicide, and quality of life.

YNHH hosted thirty one focus groups and key personnel interviews across four hospitals, offered subject matter expertise, and administrative guidance. WILL Interactive conducted the focus groups, interviews, and other research to determine learning objectives and techniques. Scenarios and content were designed, written, and then…COVID-19 arrived.

Deep Collaboration and Research-Driven Design

The challenge of resilience among healthcare clinicians suddenly became a critical national crisis. Yale and WILL stepped up.

Filming the scenarios, so indispensable for connecting the subject matter to real life context, came with extraordinary risk.

In September 2020, The Thriving Clinician became WILL’s first in-person video production post-COVID. Filmed in Washington, DC at the height of the epidemic, each actor had to be tested daily and be given a separate hospital room as a personal waiting room. Using camera tricks and creative storyboarding, all scenes were filmed with actors standing no closer than six feet from each other except for short scenes where actors walked together while holding their breath.

Yale and WILL Interactive heard what clinicians were longing for: better work/life balance, depression and burnout recognition and mitigations, reduced social stigma for seeking help (or even taking breaks), and resources (and honesty) around suicide. Yale and WILL discovered significant knowledge gaps in processing emotionality, seeking and accepting help, creating a culture of openness and mutual support, and leadership under stressful conditions.
The team put those heartfelt testimonies into an emotional, transformative course that not only portrays clinicians' lives realistically, but offers a path toward building a more sustainable career in healthcare.

The result is a course beloved by the clinicians it serves that addresses multiple mental health and career challenges among a variety of clinical roles. The course is helping to improve quality of life and career longevity in multiple organizations.

Customer Story - YALE NEW HAVEN HEALTH PART 2

Yale Partners with Will Interactive to Address National Clinician Mental Health and Burnout Crisis

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Project Overview