Compassion, connection, and capacity: Outcomes of a yearlong contemplative medicine fellowship
Anne Kennard1, Jennifer Clinkenbeard2, Erin Gillespie3
1Marian Regional Medical Center; Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Santa Maria, CA, USA.
Objective:
To evaluate how a year-long Contemplative Medicine Fellowship impacts physician burnout, moral injury, work-life integration, meaning, capacity for compassion, and professional resilience.
Design:
A pre-post survey observational study using a combination of validated survey tools and questionnaire items authored by the research team.
Setting:
The New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care (NYZC), an educational nonprofit in the US, offers a year-long, remote learning fellowship in contemplative medicine that integrates mindfulness, compassion training, reflective inquiry, community engagement, and other contemplative approaches to the practice of medicine.
Intervention:
Participation in the Contemplative Medicine Fellowship, which includes experiential contemplative practice, didactic instruction, mentorship, peer-group reflection, and cultivation of a community of support over 12 months.
Main Outcome Measures:
Primary outcomes included changes in burnout, well-being, and compassion (Maslach Burnout Inventory, Physician Well-Being Index, DPES-Compassion Scale). Participant's perceived value of the intervention is also assessed.
Results:
Participants showed statistically significant reductions in emotional exhaustion (-10.0 points, P < .001) and depersonalization (-3 points, P = .015); increases in measures related to well-being; and statistically significant increases in compassion (+0.4 points, P = .022). Participants also reported a high level of satisfaction with the intervention and an increased sense of community.
Conclusions:
Contemplative training may mitigate burnout and moral distress while fostering compassion, meaning, connection, and leadership in clinical practice. Future endeavors may consider more widespread education and implementation of these concepts into medical education and practice as part of a cultural shift of medicine towards sustainable clinician well-being.
More Related Videos
10:45A Community-based Stress Management Program: Using Wearable Devices to Assess Whole Body Physiological Responses in Non-laboratory Settings
Published on: January 22, 2018
08:08Using Wavelet Entropy to Demonstrate how Mindfulness Practice Increases Coordination between Irregular Cerebral and Cardiac Activities
Published on: May 10, 2017
Related Concept Videos
Techniques of Therapeutic Communication II: Focusing, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing
This therapeutic technique can also be used when a patient brings up pertinent information during a health-related conversation. The...
The Scientific Method
Introspection
Patient-centered Care
Self-Awareness and Its Effects
Techniques of therapeutic communication I: Active Listening, Sharing Observations, Validation, and Using Touch
Therapeutic communication is not the same as social interaction. Social interaction has no goal or purpose and consists of casual information sharing, whereas therapeutic communication has a plan or purpose for the conversation. Therapeutic...
