By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.
“Mindfulness’s deliberate presence allows for improvement in care of peers and patients even when not directly caring for them in a medical manner. And it is this deliberate presence that can provide individuals with tools to be mentally and emotionally centered in a professional field that demands continuously increasing forms of self-sacrifice.” – Ayoosh Pareek
Stress is epidemic in the western workplace with almost two thirds of workers reporting high levels of stress at work. In high stress occupations burnout is all too prevalent. This is the fatigue, cynicism, emotional exhaustion, and professional inefficacy that comes with work-related stress. Healthcare and teaching are high stress occupations. It is estimated that over 45% of healthcare workers experience burnout with emergency medicine at the top of the list, over half experiencing burnout. Currently, over a third of healthcare workers report that they are looking for a new job. Nearly half plan to look for a new job over the next two years and 80% expressed interest in a new position if they came across the right opportunity. Teachers also experience burnout at high rates. Roughly a half a million teachers out of a workforce of three million, leave the profession each year and the rate is almost double in poor schools compared to affluent schools. Indeed, nearly half of new teachers leave in their first five years.
Burnout frequently results from emotional exhaustion. This exhaustion not only affects the healthcare providers and teachers personally, but also the patients and students, as it produces a loss of enthusiasm, empathy, and compassion. Regardless of the reasons for burnout or its immediate presenting consequences, it is a threat to the healthcare providers and their patients and to schools and their students. In fact, it is a threat to the entire healthcare and educational systems as it contributes to the shortage of doctors, nurses, and teachers. Hence, preventing burnout has to be a priority. Mindfulness has been demonstrated to be helpful in treating and preventing burnout.
In today’s Research News article “Systematic Review of Mindfulness Practice for Reducing Job Burnout.” See:
or below or view the full text of the study at:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4776732/
Luken and Sammons reviewed the published research literature on the effectiveness of mindfulness training in treating professional burnout. They found that all of the published studies used between-groups designs with waitlist control groups. The studies also employed either modified forms of the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program or other mindfulness training programs. They found that the majority of the published research literature provided clear evidence of efficacy. Mindfulness training was found to significantly reduce burnout in both healthcare professionals and teachers.
The hallmark of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and mindfulness training in general is the reduction in stress; not actual stress but the individual’s physical and psychological responses to stress. Stress is still felt but the individual reacts less and responds more adaptively to it. This is very helpful in dealing with the high levels of stress that teachers and healthcare workers experience on a daily basis. It is this stress that drains the individual and eventually produces exhaustion. Hence, stress reduction is a major contributor to the observed reduction in burnout.
Mindfulness training also makes the individual more aware of their own immediate physical and emotional state. Since this occurs in real time, it provides the individual the opportunity to recognize what is happening and respond to it effectively before it contributes to an overall state of burnout. Indeed, mindfulness training has been shown to significantly improve emotion regulation. This produces clear experiencing of the emotion in combination with the ability to respond to the emotion adaptively and effectively. So, teachers and healthcare worker can recognize their state, realize its origins, not let it affect their performance, and respond to it appropriately, perhaps by the recognition that rest is needed. This too contributes to mindfulness training’s ability to reduce burnout.
So, reduce job burnout with mindfulness.
CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies
“While the practice of mindfulness is never a “cure-all”, research suggests that it is a powerful foundation upon which teachers can start to build their social-emotional skills—and, in turn, improve their teaching. So while we may never be able to stop that student from making an offensive remark, we can control our reaction—which, in the end, may make the student think twice about doing it again.” – Vicki Zakrzewski
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Study Summary
Luken, M., & Sammons, A. (2016). Systematic Review of Mindfulness Practice for Reducing Job Burnout. The American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 70(2), 7002250020p1–7002250020p10. http://doi.org/10.5014/ajot.2016.016956
Abstract
OBJECTIVE. A systematic search and critical appraisal of interdisciplinary literature was conducted to evaluate the evidence for practicing mindfulness to treat job burnout and to explore implications for occupational therapy practitioners.
METHOD. Eight articles met inclusion criteria. Each study was assessed for quality using the Physiotherapy Evidence Database scale. We used the U.S. Agency for Health Care Policy and Research guidelines to determine strength of evidence.
RESULTS. Of the studies reviewed, participants included health care professionals and teachers; no studies included occupational therapy practitioners. Six of the 8 studies demonstrated statistically significant decreases in job burnout after mindfulness training. Seven of the studies were of fair to good quality.
CONCLUSION. There is strong evidence for the use of mindfulness practice to reduce job burnout among health care professionals and teachers. Research is needed to fill the gap on whether mindfulness is effective for treating burnout in occupational therapy practitioners.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4776732/