Originally published Summer Newsletter 2024. Written by Cayla Daniele, PA-C.
When was the last time that you took a deep breath at work?
When was the last time at work that you thought about your 5 senses. What do you hear? See? Smell? Touch? Taste? Did you gobble that lunch down and chug your coffee or did you get to taste the flavors and think about what you were fueling your body with?
In the expeditious world of medicine, health care providers are experiencing burnout at a rapid pace. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that nearly half of health care workers feel burned out as of 2022, which is up 32% from 2018.1 Roughly the same percentage of workers are looking for a new job secondary to burnout.1 Healthcare professionals may be tasked with arduous working hours, night shifts, on call hours, along with the pressures of managing sick patients and the mentally taxing exposure to life-threatening illnesses. There is also a culture of perfectionism within medicine that can lend itself to distress. However, the stigma of healthcare providers having mental health problems causes avoidance of seeking care. A recent study found that 93% of healthcare workers have stress, however only 13% have reported receiving behavioral health services.2
Depression provokes us to dwell on things in the past that are unchangeable. Anxiety prompts us to worry about what can or will happen in the future. When the focus is on the past or future, we are missing out on experiencing the present. So how can we take care of ourselves and encourage our colleagues and even our patients to do the same while under pressure of time constraints and stress at work? Studies have shown that a brief mindfulness intervention is an effective way of reducing stress in the health care workplace.3 Mindfulness is the process of intentionally focusing on the present moment, being aware of where we are and what we are doing.4 It is the act of being in the moment, noticing our senses and focusing on what we are feeling, seeing, thinking, and touching, letting our thoughts pass without judgement.5 Mindfulness comes in several flavors which will be highlighted here. Most importantly, there is no right or wrong way practice mindfulness, as long as the focus is on the present.
One way we can practice mindfulness is by focusing on an object. Here is an example: think about walking back to your desk and sitting down after managing a stressful patient. Your mind is racing about what happened, how you managed it, what patients you have to see next, how you’re going to leave work on time, what to make for dinner, how to spend time with your kids when you’re exhausted already, what your schedule looks like for tomorrow and the next day, etc. Sound familiar? Think about taking a deep breath and picking up something on your desk (a pen, a picture, a paperweight, etc). What colors do you see? What hues are the colors? How rough or soft is the object? How heavy or light is it? Your racing thoughts will likely try to intervene, but acknowledge them without judgement and bring your focus back to the present and the object in front of you. These type of mindfulness treatments have shown to reduce stress and depression.6 It has also been shown to lower blood pressure and improve sleep, along with improving quality of life.6
If the above example doesn’t resonate with you, another flavor of mindfulness is one that is prompted for you. Try downloading an app that will help assist you with mindfulness. My workplace offers the Calm app for free – check to see if your hospital or employer offers something like this, or perhaps suggest this through your human resources department. There is also an app called Insight Timer with plenty of free content on mindfulness. In fact, these are two apps I recommend almost daily to my patients when discussing anxiety and depression. With continued practice, mindfulness has shown to inspire better moods, less perception of stress, and responding more effectively to the surroundings.4 It doesn’t change the outer stimuli, but rather how we respond both internally and outwardly. Life occurs in a ripple effect. If we can take care of our own mental health and be fully present and engage with our patients and our families, this will positively impact our communities and the world around us while enriching our own lives.
References
- U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Health Workers Face a Mental Health Crisis, 10/24/2023. https://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/health-worker-mental-health/index.html.
- American Hospital Association. Strengthening the Health Care Workforce: Supportive Behavioral Health. 2022. https://www.aha.org/system/files/media/file/2022/09/Strengthening-the-Health-Care-Workforce-Complete-20220909.pdf.
- Ameli R., et al. Effect of a Brief Mindfulness-Based Program on Stress in Health Care Professionals at a US Biomedical Research Hospital. JAMA. 8/2020. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7448827/.
- Chmielewski J., et al. Mindfulness in Healthcare Professionals and Medical Education. International Journal of Occupational Medicine and Environmental Health. 2021. https://ijomeh.eu/pdf-125756-60790?filename=Mindfulness%20in%20healthcare.pdf.
- Greater Good Magazine: Science-Based Insights for a Meaningful Life. What is Mindfulness? 2024. https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/topic/mindfulness/definition.
- National Institute of Health: News in Health. Mindfulness for your Health: The Benefits of Living Moment by Moment. 6/2021. https://newsinhealth.nih.gov/2021/06/mindfulness-your-health#:~:text=Mindfulness%2Dbased%20treatments%20have%20been,help%20people%20cope%20with%20pain.
Photo credit: https://www.mindful.org/mindfulhome-mindfulness-for-healthcare-workers-during-covid/