Teaching doctors and nurses mindfulness can help them prevent errors during treatment of patients it has been suggested.
Medical blunders have included leaving ‘foreign objects’ inside a patient after surgery, operating on the wrong body part or providing an incorrect prescription.
Just last week it emerged NHS staff left a sponge inside a patient’s body after surgery when they went off for their tea break.
But experts argue that teaching the medical profession how to be present in the present moment can not only help avoid such errors but also improve the quality of care for patients.
Sir Anthony Seldon, the vice chancellor at Buckingham University and a long-time advocate of mindfulness, told the Sunday Telegraph: “Many patients come into their GP office and they see a tired person who is looking distracted, looking at the clock, and they feel the person is not truly connecting with them.
“What mindfulness helps everyone do – from the receptionist to the doctor – is helps them focus their attention on the patient, their problem and what they are saying to them.
“Mindfulness means that your mind is fully present, your mind isn’t distracted, it isn’t thinking about the past or the future. It’s completely focused in on the here and now.”
Sir Anthony is hosting a two-day mindfulness seminar for medics this week and he argued that if health professionals learn to master the art of being in the present moment this could help improve the quality of care.
Errors during operations
He said: “Look at how many errors occur during operations: bits left inside doctors operating on the wrong side. Look at how many nurses make mistake on the actual volume of injections or tablets.
But he said the frequency of these errors can be slowed down by “teaching medical staff to be still and to focus their attention and this requires a simple practice that doesn’t require money, taking drugs or anything unnatural”.
Some research has suggested the benefits already for medical staff. A US study published in 2013 showed physicians that identify themselves as more mindful have higher levels of patient satisfaction.
And a separate study revealed health professionals who have participated in mindfulness training may be less likely to suffer from stress and burnout.
However, not everyone is categorically saying mindfulness can help improve patients’ care.
Dr Jonty Heaversedge, chair of the NHS Southwark Clinical Commissioning Group, said: “We still don’t have the research to explicitly confirm that [mindfulness] makes a difference.
“However, there is a growing body of evidence that suggests that mindfulness can improve health and wellbeing and productivity and the question is whether it has a place in medicine.
“My view is that mindfulness is quite likely to be beneficial for healthcare professionals of all types because we know from evidence in other professions that it supports resilience.
“It could potentially help reduce the risk of burnout through stress specially under some of the pressures that healthcare professionals are under.”
From: The Telegraph