Focused-Attention Meditation Improves Flow, Communication Skills, and Safety Attitudes of Surgeons

Focused-attention meditation (FAM) training improved surgeons' flow levels, communication skills, and safety attitudes, and was associated with a lower incidence of adverse clinical events. In a randomized trial with 140 surgeons from three hospitals in China, those who received 8 weeks of FAM training showed significant improvements on three scales measuring flow, communication, and safety attitudes compared to a waitlist control group. The FAM group also had significantly fewer adverse events during the intervention period. The findings suggest that cognitive ergonomics approaches such as FAM may help reduce patient safety incidents in surgical settings.

Study at a glance

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Patient safety is a worldwide problem and a focus of academic research. Human factors and ergonomics (HFE) is an approach to improving healthcare work systems and processes. From the perspective of the cognitive ergonomics of HFE, the aim of this study is to improve the flow level, communication skills, and safety attitudes of surgeons through focused-attention meditation (FAM) training, thus helping to reduce adverse clinical events. METHODS: In total, 140 surgeons were recruited from three hospitals in China and randomly divided into two groups (FAM group and control group). The FAM group received 8 weeks of FAM training, while the control group was on the waiting list and did not receive any interventions. Three scales (WOLF, LCSAS, and SAQ-C) were used to measure the data of three variables (flow, communication skills, and safety attitude), respectively, at two times, before and after the intervention (pre-test and post-test). The incidence of adverse events during the intervention was also collected for both groups. RESULTS: The ANOVA results showed that all three variables had a significant main effect of time and significant interactions between time and group. The independent-sample T-test results showed that the incidence of adverse events during the intervention was significantly lower in the FAM group than in the control group. CONCLUSIONS: The intervention of FAM could significantly improve surgeons' flow levels, communication skills, and safety attitudes, potentially helping to reduce adverse clinical events.