Loving-kindness meditation: a tool to improve healthcare provider compassion, resilience, and patient care

Abstract

Background: Stress is a critical problem facing many healthcare institutions. The consequences of stress include increased provider burnout and decreased quality of care for patients. Ironically, a key factor that may help buffer the impact of stress on provider well-being and patient health outcomes-compassion-is low in healthcare settings and declines under stress. This gives rise to an urgent question: what practical steps can be taken to increase compassion, thereby benefitting both provider well-being and patient care? Methods: We investigated the relative effectiveness of a short, 10-minute session of loving-kindness meditation (LKM) to increase compassion and positive affect. We compared LKM to a non-compassion positive affect induction (PAI) and a neutral visualization (NEU) condition. Self-and other-focused affect, self-reported measures of social connection, and semi-implicit measures of self-focus were measured pre-and post-meditation using repeated measures ANOVAs and via paired sample t-tests for follow-up comparisons. Results: Findings show that LKM improves well-being and feelings of connection over and above other positive-affect inductions, at both explicit and implicit levels, while decreasing self-focus in under 10 minutes and in novice meditators. Conclusions: These findings suggest that LKM may be a viable, practical, and time-effective solution for preventing burnout and promoting resilience in healthcare providers and for improving quality of care in patients.

Fighting the flinch: Experimentally induced compassion makes a difference in health care providers

“…Despite the fact that inducing compassion in our study did not mitigate the (arguably) more resistant impact of patients seen as at fault for their health condition, these findings are consistent with studies showing that even brief inductions of compassion have the potential to promote feelings of connection and other-focused concern (Boellinghaus, Jones, & Hutton, 2014; Seppala, Hutcherson, Nguyen, Doty, & Gross, 2014). Induced compassion moderated withdrawal in two instances where patients had 'disgusting' symptoms (wearing a mask, and how challenging it would be to examine a patient with disgusting symptoms).…”

Improving Communication between Physicians and Their Patients through Mindfulness and Compassion-Based Strategies: A Narrative Review

“…Both mindfulness and (self) compassion independently accounted for significant components of the effect of meditation experience on psychological well-being [30]. Working in a hospital environment that embraces compassion-based values yields higher employee well-being and maintains organizational commitment [62]. …”

Teaching The Practice Of Compassion To Nursing Students Within An Online Learning Environment: A Qualitative Study Protocol

“…The contribution of compassionate care to improve quality care, patient outcomes and nurse well-being is well documented (Bauer-Wu & Fontaine, 2015;Lown, 2014;Seppala et al, 2014;NHS Confederation, 2008). Patients and their families say the manner in which they are listened to and cared for with compassion is highly valued, and matters just as much as the quality of health care itself (Bray et al, 2014;Lown et al, 2011;Schout et al, 2009).…”

“…It can 'ameliorate con cerns, distress or suffering' (Lown, 2014, p. 6). But importantly, compassion is not only essential for excellent care of patients, but also for reducing burnout and improving health outcomes, well-being, and resilience in clinicians themselves (Bauer-Wu & Fontaine, 2015;Seppala et al, 2014;Lamothe et al, 2014).…”

“…Recent concerns about the lack of compassion and poor quality patient care have focused on individual preparedness and the virtuous intent of nurses. However, organisational barriers such as unmanageable workloads, staff shortages, low team morale, indifferent management, inadequate training, and limited resources continue to hinder compassionate care and foster staff stress Lown, 2014;Seppala et al, 2014;Clark et al, 2013). Further, 'incivility in the healthcare workplace is pervasive: stressed professionals treat their colleagues with disrespect, thereby perpetuating the stressful work environment' (Bauer-Wu & Fontaine, 2015, p 17).…”