At the University's Nursing School, the Compassionate Care Initiative has long worked to improve the quality of patient care by increasing compassion in health care providers.
“The Initiative promotes clinician resiliency, inter-professional collaboration and compassionate care to decrease burnout among nurses, physicians and other health care professionals, and in turn improve the quality of patient care,” said third-year Nursing student Jane Muir said, who serves as Student Representative of the Contemplative Science Center and as Nursing Representative for Student Council.
Making health care workers more compassionate can greatly improve the overall quality of care and the efficiency of the system, Muir said.
“By cultivating this compassionate workforce, patient satisfaction improves, errors are minimized and overuse decreases, which in turn reduces costs to the health care system,” Muir said.
The Compassionate Care Initiative seeks to combat stress in the workplace, which decreases productivity and lowers the quality of care.
“In the health care field, and with many professions, clinicians who are distracted, stressed, tired and unmotivated tend to be more reactive, and make unethical decisions regarding patient care,” Muir said. “If we can train our brains to notice a particular negative or reactive emotional state we are in, then we are that much closer to understanding the filters we apply to decision-making that can be particularly harmful for the greater good.”
As part of its goal, CCI advocates a three-part strategy: mindfulness, compassion and connectedness.
“Mindfulness is moment-to-moment awareness about your internal and external environment,” Muir said. “Compassion is having a true desire to alleviate suffering for yourself and others, whether it be physical or emotional. Connectedness means coming to the realization that our friendships, family, nature and priorities are all related.”
The initiative hosts a series of events — including meditations available most weekdays, along with several drop-in events open to anyone in the University community, including meditation groups, yoga and Mindful Lunches.
The office also hosts monthly events, such as RX3 artistic workshops — advocating Resilience, Reflection and Relationships — and nursing student resiliency retreats at Morven Farms.
The initiative also offers several courses.
“Academic courses offered by the initiative include Mindfulness and Compassion, in which students engage in contemplative practices and uncover the scientific evidence behind mind-body training and neuroplasticity," Muir said. "This semester we are offering a Foundations of Medical Yoga for Health Professionals."
Muir’s own involvement with the initiative began when she took the Mindfulness and Compassion class.
“To learn that there was an evidence base behind these contemplative practices that I saw first-hand helping me perform better academically, professionally with my patients in clinic and overall in terms of my health, was incredibly empowering,” said Muir. “I asked to join the initiative and now serve as the leader of the student ambassadors and assistant project manager.”
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