Washington, Sep 23 (Inditop.com) Training in meditation and communication can ease distress and burnout experienced by many physicians.
As many as 60 percent of practicing physicians report symptoms of burnout, which is defined as emotional exhaustion, treating patients as objects, and low sense of accomplishment, the study authors stated.
The training also can expand a physician’s capacity to relate to patients and enhance patient-centred care, says a study led by Michael S. Krasner, associate professor of clinical medicine at the University of Rochester Medical Centre (URMC).
“From the patient’s perspective, we hear all too often of dissatisfaction in the quality of presence from their physician. From the practitioner’s perspective, the opportunity for deeper connection is all too often missed in the stressful, complex, and chaotic reality of medical practice,” Krasner said.
“Enhancing the already inherent capacity of the physician to experience fully the clinical encounter – not only its pleasant but also most unpleasant aspects… seems to have had a profound effect on the experience of stress and burnout….”
“Cultivating these qualities of mindful communication with colleagues, anecdotally, had an unexpected benefit of combating the practitioners’ sense of isolation and brought forth the very experiences that are such a rich source of meaning in the life of the clinician,” he said.
Edward A. Stehlik, governor of the Upstate New York branch of the American College of Physicians, said the training was “the most useful thing I’ve done since my medical training to help me in my practice of medicine,” according to an URMC release.
These findings were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
