Nowadays, it is not enough to depend just on one’s clinical abilities and the motivation to help others in order to meet the growing demands of providing safe and high-quality care in a chaotic working environment. Medical professionals must become more resilient, mindful and compassionate in their treatment of patients as well as toward themselves.
Increasing Pressures for Healthcare Workers
Overall, the heavy workload of primary care doctors may contribute to stress and a high rate of physician burnout. Not only are those working in healthcare fields subjected to all-pervasive stress, but they are also exposed to the culture of perfectionism. Thus, for them to properly assist their patients, they need tools that will allow them to strike a healthy balance between the amount of work they do and the amount of rest they get.
Mindfulness represents a viable avenue for healthcare leaders aiming to enhance their abilities. Any healthcare system’s ultimate objective is to offer high-quality patient treatment and to promote population health and wellbeing. These complex systems depend on a robust network of medical personnel and carers. Leadership styles that are mindful, self-reflective, and flexible are essential for assisting individuals who carry society’s essential medical duties. Learn more about healthcare leadership by following a comprehensive leadership course.
Typically, healthcare work settings do not promote contemplative, mindful attitudes to patient care and staff resiliency. The current curriculum for healthcare professions does not place sufficient emphasis on human connection skills and methods that enable doctors to interact with patients in a genuine, undistracted, unhurried way. In addition, there is an urgent need to assist present and future healthcare professionals in developing skills for self-care and resilience.
Training oneself to be aware may improve one’s sense of mood and stress levels, as well as one’s ability to react more effectively to external stimuli. All of these characteristics have the potential to contribute favorably to the delivery of healthcare services.
How Mindfulness Helps Healthcare Professionals
In 1990, Kabat-Zinn described mindfulness as paying intentional and non-judgmental attention to the present moment. Overall, practicing mindfulness refers to a collection of different approaches to self-care that might assist us in becoming more adept at controlling these thinking processes. In spite of the hectic nature of our daily lives, we are able to take care of ourselves with the help of these strategies.
Moreover, in 2013, Fortney concluded that mindfulness is an especially suitable and attractive alternative for physicians as a method of coping with distress because it directly targets meaning in life and work. Mindfulness practice alleviates the symptoms of burnout experienced by physicians and other caregivers while also enhancing engagement, a feeling of purpose, the ability to successfully navigate challenging interactions with patients, and the capacity to feel empathy.
Uncovering the Impact of Mindfulness and Patient Care
Furthermore, the increased self-reflection and ability to control emotions that occur from practicing mindfulness also improve cooperation and decision-making, eventually improving patient safety, outcomes, and costs. The last benefit of mindfulness is increased emotional intelligence, better sleep, and general resilience. People who are more adept at self-reflection are significantly better at detecting which components of their personality are needed by a particular scenario, which helps them behave in an appropriate manner, according to research published in an MIT Sloan Review in 2012.
Adopting mindful healthcare practices and points of view may be of tremendous benefit at every stage of medical treatment. In 2013, Beach and other researchers discovered healthcare professionals who self-identified as mindful could provide patient-centered care to patients who were happier with their treatment. This was true for doctors, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants. If healthcare professionals become self-aware, it will be easier for them to comprehend the feelings they are experiencing and grasp where they are coming from in the pursuit of their professional responsibilities.
Bottom Line
Not only are healthcare personnel subjected to pervasive stress, but also to a culture of perfectionism. Hence, they greatly benefit from mindfulness techniques to create a balance between work and personal well-being in order to assist their patients efficiently.
References
Full catastrophe living: using the wisdom of your body and mind to face stress, pain, and illness, 1990 https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Full_Catastrophe_Living.html?id=TVsrK0sjGiUC&redir_esc=y
MIT Sloan Review, How to Become a Better Leader, 2012 https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/how-to-become-a-better-leader/
Abbreviated mindfulness intervention for job satisfaction, quality of life, and compassion in primary care clinicians: A pilot study, 2013. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24019272/
A multicenter study of physician mindfulness and health care quality, 2013 https://doi.org/10.1370/afm.1507
The Editorial Team at Healthcare Business Today is made up of skilled healthcare writers and experts, led by our managing editor, Daniel Casciato, who has over 25 years of experience in healthcare writing. Since 1998, we have produced compelling and informative content for numerous publications, establishing ourselves as a trusted resource for health and wellness information. We offer readers access to fresh health, medicine, science, and technology developments and the latest in patient news, emphasizing how these developments affect our lives.
