Effect of an Intensive Mindful Practice Workshop on Patient-Centered Compassionate Care, Clinician Well-Being, Work Engagement, and Teamwork.

Introduction: Mindfulness-based interventions for health professionals have been linked to improvements in burnout, well-being, empathy, communication, patient-centered care, and patient safety, but the optimal formats and intensity of training have been difficult to determine because of the paucity of studies and the heterogeneity of programs. A 4-days residential "Mindful Practice" workshop for physicians and medical educators featuring contemplative practices, personal narratives, and appreciative dialogs about challenging experiences may hold promise in improving participants' well-being while also improving compassionate care, job satisfaction, work engagement, and teamwork.

Methods: We collected baseline and 2-month follow-up data during four workshops conducted in 2018 to 2019 at conference centers in the United States and Europe.

Empathy in medicine: Neuroscience, education and challenges.

Empathy is a multifaceted skill and asset for health care providers. This paper uses current neuroscience literature of empathy to generate nuanced theory of how empathy can be blocked by personal stress and aversion among health care professionals. Current training approaches for educating sustainable empathy are reviewed in depth.

Mindfulness-based stress reduction for older adults: effects on executive function, frontal alpha asymmetry and immune function.

Background/aims: Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) has enhanced cognition, positive emotion, and immunity in younger and middle-aged samples; its benefits are less well known for older persons. Here we report on a randomized controlled trial of MBSR for older adults and its effects on executive function, left frontal asymmetry of the EEG alpha band, and antibody response.

Methods: Older adults (n = 201) were randomized to MBSR or waiting list control.

Physician resilience: what it means, why it matters, and how to promote it.

Resilience is the capacity to respond to stress in a healthy way such that goals are achieved at minimal psychological and physical cost; resilient individuals "bounce back" after challenges while also growing stronger. Resilience is a key to enhancing quality of care, quality of caring, and sustainability of the health care workforce. Yet, ways of identifying and promoting resilience have been elusive.

Toward identifying the effects of the specific components of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction on biologic and emotional outcomes among older adults.

Objectives: The objectives of this study were to examine the effects of specific Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) activities (yoga, sitting and informal meditation, body scan) on immune function, circulating insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-1 concentrations, and positive affect among older adults.

Design: The study design comprised longitudinal analyses of data from subjects in an 8-week MBSR program.

Setting: The study was conducted at a University-affiliated health center.

The impact of a program in mindful communication on primary care physicians.

Purpose: In addition to structural transformations, deeper changes are needed to enhance physicians' sense of meaning and satisfaction with their work and their ability to respond creatively to a dynamically changing practice environment. The purpose of this research was to understand what aspects of a successful continuing education program in mindful communication contributed to physicians' well-being and the care they provide.

Method: In 2008, the authors conducted in-depth, semistructured interviews with primary care physicians who had recently completed a 52-hour mindful communication program demonstrated to reduce psychological distress and burnout while improving empathy.

Association of an educational program in mindful communication with burnout, empathy, and attitudes among primary care physicians.

Context: Primary care physicians report high levels of distress, which is linked to burnout, attrition, and poorer quality of care. Programs to reduce burnout before it results in impairment are rare; data on these programs are scarce.

Objective: To determine whether an intensive educational program in mindfulness, communication, and self-awareness is associated with improvement in primary care physicians' well-being, psychological distress, burnout, and capacity for relating to patients.