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Research has documented that primary care physicians report troubling levels of professional and personal distress, with more than half of practicing physicians in some studies reporting symptoms of burnout. Physician burnout, in turn, has been linked to lower quality of care and more medical errors.
But training in techniques of mindful communication may help physicians improve their sense of well-being and capacity for patient-centered care. That’s according to a family physician who is co-author of a recently published study that examined the effects of a CME course about mindful communication on physicians’ attitudes.
“We find ourselves encountering situations that are stressful and backing away from them. This (mindful communication) technique teaches us not to withdraw but to manage those thoughts and feelings,” said study co-author Ronald Epstein, M.D., of Rochester, N.Y., who is a professor of family medicine, psychiatry and oncology at the University of Rochester School of Medicine & Dentistry and director of the Rochester Center to Improve Communication in Health Care.
Alfred Tallia, M.D., M.P.H., of New Brunswick, N.J., agrees that mindfulness is important in caring for patients, and he points out that it also can be key to maintaining a well-functioning practice. A professor and chair of the department of family medicine at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, New Brunswick, Tallia was co-author of an article on the role of mindfulness in practice work relationships that was published in the January 2006 issue of Family Practice Management.
“Mindfulness was important for work relationships in successfully functioning practices,” he told AAFP News Now. “With all the stresses family physicians, their colleagues and staff find themselves under in an often dysfunctional healthcare system, mindfulness is important.”
Study Describes Ways to Combat Burnout
In the University of Rochester study, which was published in the Sept. 23/30 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association, as many as 60 percent of practicing physicians and nearly half of all third-year medical students report symptoms of burnout, which the study defined as “emotional exhaustion, depersonalization — treating persons as objects — and low sense of accomplishment.”
Because earlier research has linked burnout to loss of meaning and a sense of lack of control, the researchers sought to address these factors through developing greater mindfulness — “the quality of being fully present and attentive in the moment during everyday activities.”
Source: AAFP News | |
