Mindfulness training in medical education as a means to improve resilience, empathy, and mental health in the medical profession.

High rates of depression, burnout, and suicide risk among medical students, residents, and physicians compared to other careers indicate a mental health crisis in the profession. This crisis and inadequate interpersonal skill acquisition during medical education stem from the interaction between a challenging environment and individuals' mental capital. Mindfulness-based practices help develop key components of mental capital such as resilience, flexibility, and learning skills, and enhance empathy, compassion, self-awareness, conflict resolution, and relational abilities. Evidence supporting mindfulness-based interventions is growing, and many medical schools have integrated mindfulness into curricula. While not a panacea, there is an opportunity to spread and study mindfulness programs to address longstanding shortcomings in medical education and health systems.

Study at a glance

Abstract

The high rates of depression, burnout, and increased risk of suicide among medical students, residents, and physicians in comparison with other careers signal a mental health crisis within our profession. We contend that this crisis coupled with the inadequate acquisition of interpersonal skills during medical education results from the interaction between a challenging environment and the mental capital of individuals. Additionally, we posit that mindfulness-based practices are instrumental for the development of major components of mental capital, such as resilience, flexibility of mind, and learning skills, while also serving as a pathway to enhance empathy, compassion, self-awareness, conflict resolution, and relational abilities. Importantly, the evidence base supporting the effectiveness of mindfulness-based interventions has been increasing over the years, and a growing number of medical schools have already integrated mindfulness into their curricula. While we acknowledge that mindfulness is not a panacea for all educational and mental health problems in this field, we argue that there is currently an unprecedented opportunity to gather momentum, spread and study mindfulness-based programs in medical schools around the world as a way to address some longstanding shortcomings of the medical profession and the health and educational systems upon which it is rooted.