Mindfulness-based stress reduction training is associated with greater empathy and reduced anxiety for graduate healthcare students.

INTRODUCTION: Graduate healthcare students experience significant stressors during professional training. Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) is a behavioural intervention designed to teach self-regulatory skills for stress reduction and emotion management. This study examines the impact of MBSR training on students from five healthcare graduate programs in a quasi-experimental trial. METHODS: A total of 13 students completed the MBSR program and were compared with 15 controls. Both groups answered validated questionnaires measuring anxiety, burnout and empathy at baseline, at conclusion of the course (week 8) and 3 weeks post-course completion (week 11). RESULTS: Significant decrease in anxiety at weeks 8 and 11 compared with baseline (P<0.001 and P<0.01, respectively) was observed using the Burns Anxiety Inventory. Significant increase in empathy at week 8 (P<0.0096) was observed using the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy. Week 11 demonstrated a decrease in empathy from baseline (not statistically significant) across all subjects. No significant differences in burnout scores at weeks 8 and 11 were observed between those in the intervention and control groups. CONCLUSIONS: These results provide supportive evidence of MBSR as a behavioural intervention to reduce anxiety and increase empathy among graduate healthcare students.

Transformative learning: empathy and multicultural awareness in podiatric medical education.

BACKGROUND: Short-term medical missions are common in medical educational settings and could possibly affect student learning. Little research has been conducted about the potential of these missions on students' transformative learning, in particular as it relates to empathy and multicultural awareness. METHODS: Eight podiatric medical students who participated in short-term medical missions in 2008 and 2009 completed an electronic survey to investigate the effect of their experience as it relates to their learning. The empathy and multicultural awareness impact of the mission experience was emphasized. Qualitative questions in the survey were coded, themed, and triangulated with the quantitative responses. RESULTS: Six students (75%) "strongly agreed" that participating in the medical mission was a significant positive experience in their podiatric medical training. Six students felt that their experiences in serving these communities increased their personal awareness of multicultural/diversity needs in general. All of the students agreed that they will become better podiatric physicians because of their experiences in the medical missions. The qualitative data also indicate that the experience had an effect on the students' views of health care and increased empathy toward their patients. CONCLUSIONS: Short-term medical missions could play a significant role in the transformative learning experience in podiatric medical education. This could affect the empathy and multicultural awareness of podiatric medical students. Further and more extensive evaluations of the potential impact of short-term medical missions in podiatric medical education should be explored because it could influence curriculum and global health in the field of podiatric medicine.