Why the Mindful Practice program was developed

There are numerous situations that we all encounter on a daily basis that make it difficult to function at our best. Strong emotions, conflict, medical errors, burnout, difficult decisions, dealing with dying or extremely ill patients and witnessing unimaginable suffering place stress on students, residents and practicing physicians. We all can recall situations in which we were providing the best care we could for patients, even in the face of difficulties. We can also recall situations when we ignored something that should have been obvious, failed to establish a trusting relationship with a patient at a critical time, and made decisions in which we subsequently asked ourselves, “What was I thinking?” or “Was I really paying attention?”. We all know that there are ways in which our own well-being has affected clinical care. The goal of this program is to help clinicians use their knowledge, skills and presence to provide the best for patients and for themselves.

Sound clinical reasoning, strong patient-physician relationships and excellent technical quality of care depend on physicians’ ability to understand themselves, their thoughts, their feelings and their own moment-to-moment level of attention. However, physicians generally have limited understanding of the way that they process information and their own limitations. Unless physicians are mindful of these stresses and their responses to them, the cumulative effect of those stresses often leads to creating an insular shell for self-protection, making avoidable mistakes, losing a connection with patients, and difficulty seeing a complex patient situation from a different perspective. Residents and practicing physicians frequently report that those stresses lead to burnout, lack of empathy and compromises in patient safety.

Learning to respond effectively to these challenges can improve the quality of care and physician well-being. Being mindful is the first step. Mindfulness is the purposeful intentional self-awareness that allows us to assess our own perceptions, thoughts, feelings and technical skills on a moment-to-moment basis, and to understand the internal and external factors contributing to our effectiveness at dealing with them. The explicit aim of the program is to help students and residents develop self-awareness and self-care skills so that they can be attentive and present in clinical settings. Self-awareness is an essential element of communication, technical skill, professionalism, teamwork, and life-long learning.

For further information contact the OEER:

Office of Educational Evaluation and Research
University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry
601 Elmwood Avenue
Box 601
Rochester, NY 14526

Room G-7808
(585) 275-4521
( 585) 273-3290 (fax

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