Enhancing Patient Care with Mindfulness: Strategies for Healthcare Professionals

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Unlock the power of presence in healthcare with our latest conversation, as Dr. Damaris Grossman and Kate McLaughlin guide us through the transformative effects of mindfulness on patient care. Imagine a healthcare system where every practitioner's touch and word are rooted in deep empathy and awareness—this episode is your roadmap to that reality. Together, we scrutinize the undeniable link between a clinician's empathy and patient outcomes, probing the practical applications of mindfulness strategies proven to mitigate burnout, enhance communication, and minimize errors in the high-stakes realm of medicine.

Step into the shoes of healthcare professionals as Kate and I share intimate experiences and hands-on techniques for infusing mindfulness into the hustle of medical routines. Learn how something as simple as a piece of jewelry can anchor you in the now, and how surgical timeouts and threshold pauses are not merely procedural checkpoints but opportunities for reflection and focus. Our dialogue reveals how these mindful moments can bolster respect, teamwork, and ultimately, the quality of care provided, benefiting both the healer and those they serve.

Wrap up your day with a dose of mindfulness tailored for both your personal and professional spheres. In this episode, we introduce a gamut of adaptable mindfulness meditations, from breath counting to the love and kindness meditation, designed to help you navigate and reset during life's most stressful chapters. Allow these practices to transform your daily interactions, setting a positive intention that reverberates through your work and life. Join us and let the profound insights shared by Dr. Grossman and Kate McLaughlin inspire you to weave a thread of mindful attention through the fabric of your everyday experiences.

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Transcript

Damaris Grossmann: 1:02

Hello and welcome to our program titled Evaluating Opportunities to Improve Healthcare Delivery and Outcomes Part 2. The Impact of Mindfulness and Compassion on Patient Perceptions of Care. My name is Dr Damaris Grossman and I am an integrative family nurse practitioner and doctor of nurse practice. At this time, I'd like to introduce co-faculty member, fellow registered nurse and patient advocate for this activity, kate.

Katie : 1:30

McLaughlin, I'm so delighted to be here. Thank you.

Damaris Grossmann: 1:34

Our program today is brought to you by MedExchangeLive. Medexchangelive provides interactive educational programs to the medical community through the use of peer-to-peer debate and discussion on issues of medical interest. Learning for the program has been provided through an unrestricted educational grant from Pfizer Pharmaceuticals. The activity will be starting momentarily, but before we begin, I'd like to provide you with the following information. During the activity, we'll be discussing several important topics as they relate to opportunities for improving healthcare delivery and outcomes, by exploring clinician mindfulness as it relates to patient care. We'll begin our program by providing a presentation titled mindfulness the pathway to compassion and empathy, whereby I'll review the impact of empathy on clinical encounters. I'll also provide an introduction to mindfulness as a foundational concept for compassion and empathy and discuss the significance of mindfulness on communication and relationships and mindfulness and bias. Next, kate will provide a didactic presentation titled evidence-based approaches to mindfulness in clinical practice. She'll review provider workplace outcomes that reduce burnout and improve employee retention, patient provider communications designed to reduce interruptions and improve patient satisfaction. Kate will also review the effect of mindfulness on clinical outcomes, specifically reduced medical errors, and improve care delivery. I'll present the final portion of our program, titled practice-based strategies for improving mindfulness, designed to educate us about implementation of purposeful pauses, threshold pauses and clinic teams shift huddles in our daily routines. Kate and I will engage with one another throughout the presentation so we can provide our perspective on how issues and solutions impact patient care. On that note, thank you for your attention and enjoy the activity. At this time I'm going to take the floor for our first presentation titled mindfulness the pathway to compassion and empathy Recap Impact of empathy on clinical encounters. There is a positive relationship between a physician level of empathy and a patient's clinical outcomes. The appropriate level of empathy results in improved communication and active listening between both parties, enhanced information disclosure by patients, higher medication self-efficacy and medication compliance, improved clinical competence and patient outcomes.

Damaris Grossmann: 4:28

Introduction to mindfulness Mindfulness is a foundational concept for compassion and empathy. What is empathy and what is compassion and what is mindfulness? Why do they improve patient-provider relationships? Empathy is known as the ability to relate to one another's pain, as one has experience that pain themselves without having the feeling, thoughts or experience, fully communicating in an objective, explicit way. So empathy is a way of just kind of really understanding someone and how they feel and being able to relate to them in whether it's a pain or their circumstance. Compassion is a sympathetic consciousness of distress of another. An example would be together, a desire to alleviate one's compassion or distress. So you're using compassion to alleviate their distress. Mindfulness is the quality or the state of being mindful, the practice of maintaining a non-judgmental state, or heightening of a person's awareness of one's thoughts, emotions or experience on a moment-to-moment basis. Now, mindfulness has a lot of definitions, but in this situation we're discussing trying to bring yourself some awareness into your thoughts and in your emotions and we just take it one moment at a time.

Katie : 5:51

So, mara, as if I can interrupt you for a moment, how do you think clinicians are doing with implementing mindfulness into their practice? Are we making headway?

Damaris Grossmann: 6:00

I think it varies. So in a lot of settings and hospital settings and in clinics they don't have as much time or. But I think more and more that mindfulness has become mainstream and it's been more in the way of building a healthier lifestyle and a healthier way of living. People are starting to realize that just small steps of mindfulness has really kind of helped them be better clinicians and helped be better providers for their patients. So mindfulness in communication and relationships, mindfulness has emerged in healthcare since the 1960s. So it was introduced by John Capitzen called Mindful-Based Stress Reduction.

Damaris Grossmann: 6:44

The goal of mindfulness is addressing people and their situations without prejudgment and allowing practitioners to focus on current situations and being present. So the main thing with mindfulness is you really are trying to come into a situation with your patients or an event and you're trying to make sure that you are being non-judgmental. You're really focusing on that moment and that present time, especially being with that patient, and there, when you're present, you're believing and having a better communication and relationships with them. So then in turn we'll then have better outcomes. Mindfulness and bias being present allows a practitioner to focus on listening and interacting without bias. It improves communication and cultivates a relationship with the patient while developing compassion and empathy. When you have more mindfulness with your patients and in your care and life, you don't have any bias with them. You really take the moment to meet them where they are at that moment and take the time to really listen.

Katie : 7:48

So, maris, that's some good stuff we just saw, but I wonder does the current state of affairs and healthcare allow for clinicians to take this kind of time with their patients? How can this be accomplished?

Damaris Grossmann: 8:00

So I think and that's a really interesting question, I feel that it just depends upon the work environment that mindfulness and has been more of a new age thing and it has been more available and the good thing is that it's for patients and clinicians to get better outcomes. Back a few years back it may not have been available but I think more and more it's becoming accepting and people are realizing there's better patient outcomes and better for clinicians and the patient. So they're realizing you know what we need to really address this on a one-on-one and each environment is different. Sometimes, you know, in a hospital setting you may only have a few minutes, but maybe in a clinic setting we'll have more time. So it's just a matter of you know, day-to-day work environment and just kind of seeing how they can implement these small steps. Now Kate is going to provide a review of evidence-based approaches to mindfulness in clinical practice.

Katie : 8:56

Thank you, demaris. Provider workplace outcomes. Institutional effects of burnout globally, 27 to 45% of providers report burnout. Providers who self-reported burnout were twice as likely to leave their employer within two years. Providers with intentions to leave are three times more likely to leave an employer, and the cost to replace a physician is estimated to be at about $268,000 to $957,000 per physician, based on specialty and, of course, experience. Provider workplace outcomes when we talk about mindfulness-based training and improving several provider dynamics, we're talking about empathy, emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, improved well-being and improved employee retention, improved self-compassion. So these are all things that you know that encompass and allow providers to do the gifts that they do by providing for patients. So it's important that we recognize what the issues are and how they play in specifically to patient care.

Damaris Grossmann: 10:14

The statistics you presented real world and, if so, why has it not been recognized and addressed?

Katie : 10:21

And it's interesting that you should bring this up and burnout and what's happening not only in the United States but also globally. This is a major issue that not only physician organizations like the American Medical Association, but also in nursing. Nursing burnout is upwards of about 33%, so it's quite high and, of course, exhausting Right. And the number one thing is, you know, addressing the issue Right now. You're seeing around the country, especially in the US, where tackling this is actually starting at within the school systems for providers. Medical schools are now teaching mindfulness while students are in medical school, and the same thing for nursing programs, so they're learning these tactics that will help to build not only resilience but improve patient interactions and outcomes, and then better for the clinician a better clinician makes a better experience, absolutely, and there's tons of studies that support that that makes sense.

Katie : 11:29

Mindfulness-based training has shown to improve patient provider relationships, improve communication and reduce interruptions. It takes 23 minutes to recover from a work interruption and reach full productivity again. Interruptions happen at approximately four times an hour, according to one interruption every 15 minutes. Improved patient satisfaction is also really important when we're discussing reducing those interruptions and, of course, when we discuss mindfulness, the importance of reducing bias, and this is something that around the country right now is such a major issue. Healthcare bias is something that is now being investigated, looking at what our own prejudice are against either disease process or socioeconomic background, and even race and religion.

Damaris Grossmann: 12:31

So mindfulness does come into play with this Kind of taking a pause and just kind of meeting the patient where they're at and not just putting their own thought and bias into just being with that patient.

Katie : 12:43

Exactly, and there's been research that has looked at the reduction of bias specifically with mindfulness and they found that people who practice mindfulness, that our providers, are more attentive, they listen to their patients, but also having that opportunity to really, like you said, meet the patient where they are and not be judgmental.

Katie : 13:05

And in the world we live in now, with the opioid epidemic which is, I mean, that's everywhere- this is an opportunity where mindfulness can really help clinicians and medical staff in general to really start listening and coming from a non-judgmental point of view and building up, like the empathy and the compassion for these patients.

Damaris Grossmann: 13:26

Oh, exactly, I mean because they, you know, just because of their certain outcomings or their circumstances doesn't mean that they can't be helped, and we, can't be there for them and we just need to be better providers.

Katie : 13:37

Absolutely, and we find this too with maternal death rates African-American women are three times more likely to die, so again, reducing that bias. Another thing that mindfulness does is it helps to reduce medication errors and medical errors. Currently in the United States, as a patient advocate, I follow this very closely. But preventable medical errors are literally the third leading cause of death right now United States, which is shocking, and it has gotten worse over the years. But mindfulness does come into play where, if you are being more mindful, studies have shown it does reduce not only medication errors that perhaps a physician writing a medication order or a nurse delivering that medication, but it's also that they're finding through studies that surgeons had reported an 11% likelihood of making medical errors. So you know where mindfulness can allow that provider to take that moment, be present, slow themselves down. There is that possibility of reducing those errors.

Damaris Grossmann: 14:49

On the same tract of that, 5% of which of these medical errors are from emotional exhaustion, Kind of giving themselves that pause, being like, hey, I need a minute, I need to take a break, and that goes back to burnout, which we had discussed.

Katie : 15:08

Higher rates of perceived medical errors corresponded with declines in empathy and again, if you have high burnout, the ability for that provider to connect with that patient and provide that empathy is less and less it's less and less.

Damaris Grossmann: 15:24

Yeah, I mean. And that's tough because, you know, with the environment of having more patient loads or more things that are going on, they find that they don't have the moments. But when they can just connect with a little bit of mindfulness and a little bit of their breath, they might be able to find those few moments or just acknowledge that they need, they're exhausted and they need a minute Right.

Katie : 15:42

I mean, we ask so much of our healthcare providers. From a person who is, you know, maybe walking an elderly person to the bathroom, to a person performing a brain surgery, they give so much of themselves. Yeah, and oftentimes it's a 24-hour job, they don't stop. So, by reducing that burnout and letting them have an opportunity to have that space of mindfulness is really so important To kind of reset. Yeah, absolutely, resetting is really, really important. It's also really it's improving the delivery of care, improve trust One of the things I think that you know when you look at the healthcare industry.

Katie : 16:27

Trust is a big issue and you know, I think when we have an opportunity to set back ourselves as providers, we are literally the we have, we're the hope sometimes for patients and if they have had situations where they don't feel they can trust a provider or they've lost trust, that's really going to direct care and how potentially their outcome is going to be. We found that when patients are having more communication, they have more empathetic providers, they're actually adhering to their medication regimens better in their treatments and this, of course, they're listening right. They're listening more Right. The trust is there If the patient, if the providers really taking the time to communicate and be there and be present, then they're they're willing to to listen more.

Damaris Grossmann: 17:18

And then they're, like you said, their patient outcomes are better. Maybe they have better positive thinking about what's going on in their lives. And then they're they're. They're they're willing to listen more and positive thinking about what's going on in their, in their illness and and they're willing to just like, really keep up and follow up on their care. Correct?

Katie : 17:37

Right and they found this out years ago. There was a study that was done and they looked at medication compliance amongst patients with HIV and the study, I believe, is over 10 years old and they found that patients who had more empathetic providers and where there was a better sharing of information, where a patient felt not judged, where they could speak to their provider, ask questions, they had much better outcomes. They they had the treatments that that were needed, the medication compliance was there and I mean that's, that's just especially with the chronic diseases you know HIV, and you're saying the compliance is so important.

Damaris Grossmann: 18:19

So and then it just helps them have better lives, better outcome, better, just a better lifestyle and a better you know for them and their families and that that only happens when you know patients feel like they're not being judged and reducing that implicit bias. So, kate, is it realistic to expect that we have, or we can have, positive effect and outcomes implementing these approaches of mindfulness?

Katie : 18:43

You know, I think that I think that there's so much that can happen with outcomes and I think that things will only get better with mindfulness. You know, mindfulness is not a new thing. It's been around for literally thousands of years and it's just taking that concept and really bringing it into something like healthcare. I mean, it's being done all around the military uses mindfulness, the Toyota industry uses mindfulness. Yeah, it's the big word now. It's the big word now, but really it's just again. It's bringing it in where people, not only as providers we're listening better to our patients and not being judgmental but also for ourselves, slowing down. We are so rushed. My background I am a critical care nurse. I spent my entire career in trauma rooms and ERs and in ICU's and in backs of ambulances, transporting really sick patients and rushing and rushing.

Katie : 19:40

And you're constantly rushing and you're doing so many things, you can get lost between the beeps and the buzzes and alarms, but having simple practices like a threshold, walking through a threshold or even hand sanitizer and just cleaning your hands is resetting yourself. I have a ring that I always wear and it worn out my finger for years and says be here now, and that's always been my thing of like. Be here now because once I come into that room, I'm with that patient, I'm observing, I'm listening, I'm present.

Damaris Grossmann: 20:13

Yeah, I have like a bracelet that I sometimes wear and I'll be like, okay, that's my bracelet, or my breath, that will go over later too. Yeah, just to kind of be there. You need to really kind of give yourself a few minutes and just find a way, just finding a way, no matter where you are, to get back to that moment, and I find that I think that for especially even like providers, like even in the surgical world, think about what a timeout is in surgery.

Katie : 20:40

Providers come into an OR a patient comes in, that timeout is really an opportunity to. Is this the right patients? Is this the right?

Damaris Grossmann: 20:51

The right side, the right side, the right surgery.

Katie : 20:54

They're making sure they have all that information that essentially is really having that being in that present space. So I mean it's kind of snuck into healthcare, maybe in different ways, but there's definitely room where mindfulness can certainly be integrated a bit more.

Damaris Grossmann: 21:12

Now we're gonna present on practice-based strategies for improving mindfulness. Methods for improving mindfulness. You have purposeful pauses, threshold pause and a clinic team shift, huddle and setting intentions. A purposeful pause, by definition, is to stop doing something for a short time and then doing it again. So recently there was a study by Singh Asbina reported that 112 cases of clinical encounters stated that the analysis showed that the clinician is having illicit patient concerns, interrupted patients after a medium of about 11 seconds. Purposeful pauses allows a clinician to be more fully present. They present it and it's felt that they get more respect. There's more collaboration and more caring. So when you have more of a purposeful pause within the provider and the patient and even a provider with other staff members, there's more improved outcomes and the patient and clinician interaction and experience really delivers better overall care.

Damaris Grossmann: 22:24

A threshold pause is a little different. This is when the part of mindfulness. They call it a toolkit or a way of for the clinician to really be aware and reset what's going on for them. So it provides them an opportunity to reset, take more time to be present. People may vary this in a sense of they call it the higher low threshold. They kind of see how they're feeling at the time. This could be an exhaustion like this could be they're tired, this could be, they're overwhelmed or anxious, or they may have like a large patient load or maybe something happened to them before they got to work and when they come to see their patients they find themselves very anxious. And it's kind of being aware of that and taking this pause to not go and take it out on that patient. So they call it a pause, taking stock on the current situation, re-engaging and really achieving more of an emotional baseline. So they're coming back to, like, the present moment and they're not bringing what happened before they walked into the room or what's going on right at the moment. If they're tired, they say you know what, I may need five minutes. Or let me just take this pause to say I don't wanna get too anxious or feel that I am tired, so I need a moment. And it's important for a provider and clinicians to recognize their personal limits and notice that this will help them be more optimal with their levels of work ethic and then it'll bring them with peak and peak performance, meaning that they'll have better outcomes Once they know that. Hey, you know I'm at my limit, for right now I need five minutes, I'll be right back and I'll come back and take care of you. So that's really kind of it's a self-awareness. But then it's also kind of rechecking where you're at and it builds better, optimal care.

Damaris Grossmann: 24:24

Now, when you're talking about the clinic team shift title, this is when you're saying bringing like a communication with your team. You really are trying to get that overall communication between yourself and other staff members, and what you're doing there is you're trying to boost practice productivity and team morale. You're trying to bring their point of view into the situation. So it's not just what you think that'll help a patient, but what could everybody do to help that patient, or the outcomes of things, daily opportunity to communicate with the patients and formulate a plan. So it gives these huddles I mean we do them all the time in hospital settings and in clinic settings it kind of gives you like a recheck okay, we're seeing Suzie today and she has this, this and going on and when you have a plan and formulate what you'd like to do to make it the best outcomes for her, you really are kind of giving yourself a little bit of a checklist and those huddles give us like where each team member can make that situation better and it's also kind of building up rapport and time management.

Damaris Grossmann: 25:38

These care teams assemble and return in time. They help review the schedule, they help us know and meet the clinic and the clinicians or the patients where they're at. Examples maybe a patient needs a potassium test or they may need a glucose test. Before the visit Maybe you notify to the medical assistant or to the other nurse and say, hey, can you take care of this, see how they're at, do they need any other medicine at the time? And just kind of really just seeing what is needed before so that that flow with that patient could be a little bit quicker, or that exchange of so there's less confusion and nervousness or anxiousness.

Damaris Grossmann: 26:22

And a shift change huddle this also can help with it gives proper communication. So previous shift and a new shift, you wanna know what was done prior and what will be done and what that'll do is helps with coordination of care, continuation of care. And that pause and time will give us better outcomes. Because if the morning shift said, hey, we didn't give this medication or we noticed his blood pressure has been elevated, can you really see if you need to adjust that? And then that's reiterated to a night shift and then they say, okay, let me make sure that we do that, so that really can. Those little few minutes of that extra time that you take can really make a difference and give not just better outcomes but really just coordination of care and just like a caring attitude for that patient and they'll notice it.

Katie : 27:16

So, Maris, have you witnessed the implementation of these types of methods for mindfulness In your experience? Are they showing positive results?

Damaris Grossmann: 27:25

I have definitely witnessed mindfulness in practices a lot, in taking the time to pause and in the clinic setting and the hospital setting, and it has been effective. More and more in our hospital work or just in the clinic work, people are realizing, hey, they're acknowledging they're burnout, they're acknowledging their exhaustion and saying, hey, I do need to figure out a minute to do better. And the other thing is you're not just doing better for your patient, but you're doing better for yourself. And if you can give yourself they call it now that self-care moment, that purposeful pause, you're then just giving, not only for you and the patient, but the overall outcomes are just the statistics have just shown that they're just better. They're better. Additional methods for improving mindfulness are simple ways like counting your breath, meditations and a loved and kindness meditation. So today we're gonna talk about, we're gonna go through a brief description on a meditation and we'll go through a four sentence love and kindness meditation that you can implement at any time in your work. So when you're talking about a five minute meditation, we say five minutes but really it could be 30 seconds, it could be a minute and it could be as simple as being right in that present moment and what you do. It's very, very basic and you keep it as simple as possible. Imagine yourself on the go and even standing around and you wanna find out how can I take this minute to meditate? And what you do is, if you were sitting, then you can sit down and kind of put your feet onto the floor, you can take a slow gaze down on to the ground or close your eyes, you can count your breath, like you can say, if you're, when you're closing your eyes, you can say one, two, three, exhale, one, two, three and in, just in that simple breath, you're acknowledging those moments and that time. Sometimes, also when you're closing your eyes, you can just imagine yourself saying I'm gonna relax my eyes, I'm gonna relax my mouth, I'm gonna make sure I smile, sometimes even just a simple word of I'm happy or I'm okay, I'm gonna breathe, little things like that.

Damaris Grossmann: 29:57

Now, one really neat meditation that we call it is love and kindness, and it's a really simple meditation and it's a four sentence meditation and it goes like this we call it may I be filled with love and kindness, may I be well, may I be peaceful and at ease and may I be happy. You can say these four sentences. With your eyes closed, you can say these four sentences with just in a moment, with counting your breath, you can just say one sentence of may I be filled with love and kindness, and what that does is kind of resets your self care and lets you know it's okay to have a moment and need to acknowledge, like we were saying, the threshold pause and it's just those couple minutes. May I be filled with love and kindness, may I be well, may I be at peace and may I be well. Take a deep breath in, exhale it out and don't forget to smile.

Katie : 31:08

Samaris, thank you for running through that with us. I found myself. Taking that quick break to meditate can really allow that necessary pause that we all need. Do you find yourself doing this throughout the day, and if there's something that you can do at work?

Damaris Grossmann: 31:28

So for me it's a matter of necessity. I would say that I used to be a very anxious person. I was military and I was very hyper as a kid and then in military I was always like on the go and then with work, and I really found like it was something that it was a necessity to learn. And so every day I do try to find a mindful moment. And how do I do at work, or what I usually tell colleagues of mine, whether it's just the basic of finding your breath, that's, counting breath one, two, three, if you can close your eyes, if you can't, just the, or maybe finding a nice quiet word or a positive word of encouragement for yourself, I'm happy.

Damaris Grossmann: 32:09

The other way I tell people is you have a pen, like most people are working, and they have a pen, and I usually have a bracelet, but kind of using that as a token or a reset, and I would go to that bracelet and say all right and just rub it, or the pen. I'd hold the pen to kind of go all right, give me a moment. I need to reset here. This moment right now is not exactly. I may be angry or I may be frustrated or I'm tired, like you know. So I kind of maybe I'd hold the pen, or with the bracelet, maybe I kind of fidget with it and that just kind of like redirects your mind and your energy over. So those are kind of things that I would do.

Katie : 32:43

It's almost like you're focusing your intense on that. Yeah, so taking like that right.

Damaris Grossmann: 32:47

So I take like that anger or that, whatever that moment that may have, kind of I don't want it to be, I want to redirect that. Yeah, exactly, and it just makes you kind of self-aware again and then you're like, oh no, let me get back to this present moment. It's for my patient or it's for my staff member that I need to listen to, or it's just so I don't make an error.

Katie : 33:09

I think there's one more thing too, as you mentioned, with the loving kindness meditation. This is a great way to set an intention for your day or for your workspace, and I know you and I are both from nursing backgrounds and I think that's so important because so often we kind of have silos. We are involved in our patient care with maybe a group of patients and then maybe the providers the physicians, nurse practitioners are in a different silo and I think when we set this intention and we're opening ourselves up to the simple things that you had mentioned about being filled with loving kindness and that radiates and what a wonderful thing there are actually facilities that do this as a way to set the tone and to set the pace for the day. So thank you so much for sharing that, Thank you.

Damaris Grossmann: 34:02

Yeah, I enjoy it. It's so important for everybody not just clinicians, but patients and throughout to really understand that just these little simple steps can really make a difference.

Katie : 34:14

So, damaris, can you just summarize what we've gone over today and some of the tools that you taught us for mindfulness?

Damaris Grossmann: 34:21

Sure, I'm going to try to keep it simple and basic.

Damaris Grossmann: 34:25

Like I said, mindfulness talks about kind of being in the present moment, really taking strategies of counting your breath, like one, two, three, using a meditation, either a few minutes meditation or a love and kindness, like a way of getting positive affirmation, or saying for yourself, like we had discussed, maybe a ring or a pen or some sort of way to redirect that energy, and then just kind of taking those strategies to see how it can work in your everyday.

Damaris Grossmann: 35:00

You know, sometimes people don't have five minutes or 10 minutes, but they just need to redirect and it's just really, like I said, the basic breath and taking those few minutes to acknowledge where they're at and also to be acknowledged where their patients are at. So it sometimes not only will help them, helps their patients, but also helps their staff members and you're just a better listener, you're a better overall provider and you also can take that in your home. You know what I mean. Like when you go home you can probably even sleep better. You know you just are, overall, a better person. So I hope that helps a little bit. So, kate, today how would you summarize your thoughts on the topics that we've discussed with you?

Katie : 35:43

So I think today was a great day, touching on what mindfulness is and how it really is, something that could be used not only to improve ourselves as clinicians and providers, but also something that could be used for patients as well. You know, thank you so much for demonstrating techniques that could be used and especially something as simple as a threshold pause. Walking through a door, you're really harried, you're busy, but just taking that moment and just having that opportunity to greet that patient, that experience that person Because it's a person.

Damaris Grossmann: 36:25

Yeah.

Katie : 36:26

So we like to put patient label, but it's a person, they have emotion and that's an opportunity for us all, as providers, to become more empathetic and to be able to listen better. And ultimately, I think that if we adopt these types of techniques and skills and just add them to our repertoire, it does make us better providers. I think that for the most part, we touched on things and again, mindfulness has such a growing field right now between the medical school programs that are even nearby us, teaching young medical students how to not only deal with stress but also engaging and paying attention and listening. So much of what we do in healthcare is often on what we do, but it really is, or should be, about how we listen.

Damaris Grossmann: 37:27

You're bringing back that connection with those patients again and connection with themselves, so then they're better.

Katie : 37:33

Oh yeah, yeah, I think there's definitely opportunities to improve care, improve outcomes, reduce medical harm. You know, there definitely it all starts with where we are as providers and our ability to take things that may be a very stressful situation and really put ourselves in a situation where we're clearly thinking, being mindful, being present and hopefully that improves not only burnout for providers, like I said, and outcomes for patients.

Damaris Grossmann: 38:07

During this MedExchange program, we've addressed a number of important issues regarding opportunities to improve healthcare delivery and outcomes by exploring clinician mindfulness as it relates to patient care. I'd like to thank Kate McLaughlin for her insights and participation In the spirit of medical education. We hope the information presented in this program has been thought provoking and will assist you in your practice setting. You'll now be prompted to complete the post-test evaluation and be provided with directions on how to obtain credit for this activity.