Promoting Mindfulness Among Medical Professionals and Patients

Sutherland, Isabella R

Item

Promoting Mindfulness Among Medical Professionals and Patients

Sutherland, Isabella R

License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Abstract

Residents and physicians often feel overworked and overwhelmed, neglecting to take time for themselves to practice mindfulness and self-care. Strategies to promote mindfulness among healthcare providers have the potential to improve measures of personal well-being as well as patient outcomes. From a patient-facing perspective, there is recognition of the utility of mindfulness practices in combatting the impact of chronic disease. However, visits are short, and it’s easy to simply not have time to discuss mindfulness - there is a need for easy-to-access educational resources to provide patients with to review on their own time. I created a learning module for the residents at my family medicine placement to address both of these issues - to educate on the evidence-based benefits of mindfulness meditation, and to provide them with resources to promote their own mindfulness and the mindfulness of their patients.