A pilot test of a mindfulness-based communication training to enhance resilience in palliative care professionals

James Gerhart, Sean O'Mahony, Ira Abrams, Johanna Grosse, Michelle Greene, Mitchell Levy

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

39 Scopus citations

Abstract

Although many providers enter palliative medicine with the intention of helping others, working in this practice also entails that providers will be repeatedly exposed to the pain, trauma, and the death of their patients. These experiences may threaten the values of providers and evoke a range of avoidant coping behaviors that potentiate distress and erode the quality of care provided. This manuscript reports pilot findings from Aware Compassionate Communication: An Experiential Provider Training Series (ACCEPTS) for Palliative Care Providers that is informed by Mindfulness-Based Interventions and principles of Psychological Flexibility Theory. Providers participated in a group-based 8-week, 10-session training series that emphasized mindfulness and acceptance-based interventions as applied to the needs of those working with the chronically ill and dying. The program included formal meditation practice, communication role plays, and value clarification exercises. Participants completed measures of distress (i.e. Depression, PTSD, and Burnout), and potential mechanisms of change (i.e. cognitive fusion and experiential avoidance) at pre-training, mid-training and post-training. Significant reductions were observed in cognitive fusion (posttreatment d=−.54, p<.05), depressive symptoms (posttreatment d=−.64, p<.01), depersonalization (posttreatment d=−.83, p<.01), PTSD Re-experiencing (posttreatment d=−.34, p<.01). Results indicated that ACCEPTS is an acceptable and feasible intervention for providers that may enhance well-being.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)89-96
Number of pages8
JournalJournal of Contextual Behavioral Science
Volume5
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 1 2016
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Burnout
  • Cognitive fusion
  • Compassion fatigue
  • Experiential avoidance
  • Healthcare professionals
  • Palliative care
  • Professional development
  • Resilience

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Health(social science)
  • Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
  • Applied Psychology
  • Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management
  • Behavioral Neuroscience

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