A Targeted Mindfulness Curriculum for Medical Students During Their Emergency Medicine Clerkship Experience
Open accessAbstract
INTRODUCTION: Despite high rates of burnout in senior medical students, many schools provide the majority of their wellness training during the first and second preclinical years. Students planning a career in emergency medicine (EM) may be at particularly high risk of burnout, given that EM has one of the highest burnout rates of all the specialties in the United States We developed an innovative, mindfulness-based curriculum designed to be integrated into a standard EM clerkship for senior medical students to help students manage stress and reduce their risk of burnout. METHODS: The curriculum included these components: (1) four, once-weekly, 60-minute classroom sessions; (2) prerequisite reading assignments; (3) individual daily meditation practice and journaling; and (4) the development of a personalized wellness plan with the help of a mentor. The design was based on self-directed learning theory and focused on building relatedness, competence, and autonomy to help cultivate mindfulness. RESULTS: Thirty students participated in the curriculum; 20 were included in the final analysis. Each student completed surveys prior to, immediately after, and six months after participation in the curriculum. We found significant changes in the self-reported behaviors and attitudes of the students immediately following participation in the curriculum, which were sustained up to six months later. CONCLUSION: Although this was a pilot study, our pilot curriculum had a significantly sustained self-reported behavioral impact on our students. In the future, this intervention could easily be adapted for any four-week rotation during medical school to reduce burnout and increase physician wellness.
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Mindfulness meditation reduces emotional reactivity by guiding attention to thoughts and feelings.
“Mindfulness meditation uses various techniques to attain a state of mindfulness and was proven to be a means to reduce emotional reactivity by guiding one's attention to their thoughts and feelings [8].”
From Effectiveness of online mindfulness interventions on medical students’ mental health: a systematic review (2021) · cites this paper as [8]
The Introduction says mindfulness is thought to decrease emotional reactivity by paying attention to thoughts and feelings, and describes meditation as a way to practice mindfulness. The claim overstates this as proven: the Methods describe measures of attitudes and self-reported behaviors, not emotional reactivity. (LLM, conf=0.88)
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- Authors
- Chung, A., Felber, R., Han, E., Mathew, T., Rebillot, K., & Likourezos, A.
- Affiliations
- Elmhurst Hospital Center (US)
- Eisenhower Medical Center (US)
- University of California, Los Angeles (US)
- Maimonides Medical Center (US)
- Corresponding author
- Chung, Arlene
- Venue
- Western Journal of Emergency Medicine
- Published
- 2018-06-29
- Volume
- 19
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 762-766
- ISSN
- 1936-900X (ISSN-L)
- 1936-9018
- PMC
- PMC6040904
- OpenAlex
- W2804334752
- Cited by
- 30
- References
- 8
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 1
- FWCI
- 6.87
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- Western Journal of Emergency Medicine (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- Funders
- New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Healthcare professionals’ stress and burnout
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Mindfulness and Compassion Interventions
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Innovations in Medical Education
- Keywords
- mindfulness, medical student burnout, emergency medicine clerkship, physician well-being, stress management, meditation, journaling, mentoring, self-directed learning, medical curriculum
- MeSH terms
- Burnout, Professional, Clinical Clerkship, Curriculum, Education, Medical, Emergency Medicine, Humans, Pilot Projects, Surveys and Questionnaires, Students, Medical, United States, Mindfulness
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