Cultivating person-centered medicine in future physicians

Abstract

Person-centered medicine, while valued implicitly, is not always taught explicitly in medical schools or during residency programs. Threats to educating and practicing person-centered medicine include perceived lack of time, stress, burnout and a paucity of mentors with a systematic approach to modeling and teaching students how to relate to patients in a way that addresses them as whole persons. Herein we review how trainee stress and burnout negatively impact patient care and outline a program designed to teach mindful medical practice that may be an antidote to these problems. Moreover, we present quantitative data and a student’s narrative to highlight how to cultivate person-centered medicine in trainees.Fifty-eight 4th year medical students completed questionnaires pertaining to: depression, burnout, stress, wellbeing, self-compassion and mindfulness before and after taking a 4-week elective entitled, Mindful Medical Practice. Statistically significant improvements were found on emotional exhaustion, depression, self-compassion and mindfulness. One student’s experiences highlighted how what he learned in the elective guided him during his family medicine residency. We conclude with a discussion of how the culture of medicine and the training of future physicians in particular, need to take the whole persons of both the physician and patient into account in order for all to be satisfied with and benefit from medical care.

What is known about paediatric nurse burnout: a scoping review

“…Similar to the results of Hallberg [50], a study of Swedish district nurses showed no impact of clinical supervision on burnout [143]. While Morrison Wylde et al [70] found a marginal improvement in pediatric nurse burnout with smartphonebased intervention vs. traditional mindfulness interventions, studies investigating mindfulness interventions in other healthcare populations reported mixed results [144][145][146][147]. Similar to pediatric nurses [84], social workers showed a significant decrease in burnout after attending skills development courses [148] suggesting that improving clinical knowledge and skills may reduce burnout.…”

Multiple influences contribute to medical students' well-being and identity formation

“…Of the various approaches reported, Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction has been shown to improve medical students' well-being by decreasing levels of stress and depression, and increasing empathy and self-compassion. [8][9][10] However, bearing in mind the circles within circles proposed in this commentary, although students may be encour-aged to engage in self-care and to practise medicine mindfully, they are unlikely to practise what they have learned if they are in a medical context that either fails to encourage this or, worse, extinguishes it.…”

La escucha: elemento fundamental en la atención espiritual del cuidado paliativo

“…El impacto del estrés y de este síndrome en la salud física de los profesionales ha sido documentado en numerosos estudios (32). Por otro lado, se ha mostrado que el estrés disminuye significativamente la atención, la concentración y la habilidad de tomar decisiones (33). Los síntomas pueden llevar al médico a cometer errores que a su vez contribuyen a que el burnout aumente; y dados los costos potenciales de estos errores médicos, su impacto emocional puede ser devastador para los profesionales de la salud (32).…”