• Christopher P Bonafide, Kristin D Maletsky, Chén Kenyon, Stephanie K Doupnik, Aditi Vasan, Irit R Rasooly, Laura Goldstein, Meghan Galligan, Jessica Hart, Halley Ruppel, Chris Feudtner, and Rebecca Tenney-Soeiro.
• Section of Pediatric Hospital Medicine, Division of General Pediatrics, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
• J Hosp Med. 2024 Apr 10.

BackgroundScientific writing is a core component of academic hospital medicine, and yet finding time to engage in deeply focused writing is difficult in part due to the highly clinical, 24/7 nature of the specialty that can limit opportunities for writing-focused collaboration and mentorship.ObjectiveOur objective was to develop and evaluate an academic writing retreat program.MethodsWe drafted a set of key retreat features to guide implementation of a 3-day, 2-night retreat program held within a 2 h radius of our hospital. Agendas included writing blocks ranging from 45 to 90 min interspersed with breaks and opportunities for feedback, exercise, and preparing meals together. After each retreat, we distributed an evaluation with multiple choice and free text response options to characterize retreat helpfulness and later gathered data on the status of each paper and grant worked on.ResultsWe held 4 retreats between September 2022 and October 2023, engaging 18 faculty and fellows at a cost of $296 per attendee per retreat. In evaluations, nearly 80% reported that the retreat was extremely helpful, and comments praised the highly mentored environment, enriching community of colleagues, and release from commitments that get in the way of writing. Of the 24 papers attendees worked on, 12 have been accepted and 6 are under review. Of the 4 grant proposals, 2 are under review.ConclusionsWe implemented a low-cost, productive writing retreat program that attendees reported was helpful in supporting deep work and represented a meaningful step toward building a community centered around academic writing.© 2024 Society of Hospital Medicine.

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