a short mindfulness for medical students · 2 3-week mindfulness course based on shared experience,...
TRANSCRIPT
A short mindfulness for medical students
Amy Spatz
Top performance
MEDICAL STUDENTS
SOCRATES
‘The unexamined life isn’t worth living’
FACTORS AFFECTING ELITE ATHLETES
• High internal and external expectations
• ‘Win at all costs’ attitudes
• Parental pressures
• Inconsistent coaching
• Long practices
• Excessive time demands
• Perfectionism Adapted from Weinberg RS, Gould D (date??)
VISCOUS CYCLE leading to STRESS
Mindfulness is:
‘paying attention in a particular way:
on purpose, in the present moment,
and non-judgmentally’.
Kabbat-Zinn, 1994
Why Mindfulness?
• Growing trend for provision of stress reduction / wellbeing support for medical students
• 8 week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) programme is proven to be successful
• Reports of increased empathy and concentration.
• fMRI – direct change to areas of brain linked to cognition.
Some Questions:
• What do students experience as part of an adapted 3 week mindfulness course?
• How feasible and useful is it?
The method Stage Description
1 Before starting course perform a personal ‘challenge’
• Record relevant numerical data
• Reflect on the experience
• Journal
2 3-week Mindfulness course based on shared
experience, discussions and daily practise
Reflect each day on:
Thoughts, feelings and emotions with regards to the
daily practise and group meetings
Any noticeable differences in day-to-day life
3 After the course has been completed repeat the
‘challenge’
Record numerical data
Reflect on the experience
The course
Week 1: Check in. Introduce, practise and discuss a ‘body scan’ form of mindfulness meditation
Week 2: Check in. Introduce, practise and discuss ‘breath awareness’
Week 3: Check in. Introduce, practise and discuss ‘mindful movement’
Homework – daily practise & Journaling
Analysis
Each student:
• Thematically analysed reflective data
• Considered this in the context of additional data gathered around the ‘challenge’.
Organisers:
• Conducted a short focus group and videoed some responses
The “Experience”
Let the Students tell us
What next?
Develop a practice that is practical
• Run the course again?
• Adapt it further?
We could use more evidence
Resources
• Mindfulness for beginners – John Kabatt- Zinn http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mindfulness-Beginners-Jon-Kabat-Zinn/dp/1591794641
• Mindfulness for students - http://mindfulnessforstudents.co.uk/students/
• Mindfulness: Finding peace in a frantic world Free audio practices
• http://franticworld.com/free-meditations-from-mindfulness/