Reducing healthcare burnout through meditation: benefits and challenges.
Varnika Fnu, Divya Rajasekaran, Anamika Pilaniya, Kanishk Aggarwal, Mini Virmani, Aachal Gupta, Rohit Jain
Cogent Mental Health 2025 DOI: 10.1080/28324765.2025.2477699 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Review Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Healthcare professionals |
| Intervention | Meditation |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Keywords | Burnout Fatigue Healthcare workers Mental health Stress |
| Key findings | Reviews evidence that meditation reduces stress and burnout among healthcare professionals and improves physiological outcomes. |
Abstract
Currently, healthcare professionals face challenges such as excessive stress, mental distress, psychiatric issues, and burnout. Contributors include various personal, professional, and environmental stressors such as prolonged work hours, high workload, patient care responsibility, information overload, and financial concerns. Stress and burnout can cause employee turnover, staffing shortages, medical errors, reduced job satisfaction, and reduced interest in pursuing or continuing healthcare as a career. This paper explores meditation as a possible solution for tackling stress- and burnout-related issues among healthcare professionals. We present findings from various studies that have revealed the physiological effects of meditation and demonstrated its impact on stress reduction, cardiovascular health, immune function, brain structure, pain management, and genetic expression. We provide insights into commonly used meditation tools such as mindfulness-based stress reduction (MSBR) programs, challenges, and solutions for implementing meditation-related programs in mainstream healthcare delivery.
Comparable studies
Other narrative reviews on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mindfulness training as a clinical intervention: A conceptual and empirical review. Clinical populations | 2003 | Review | |
| Mindfulness: Theoretical Foundations and Evidence for its Salutary Effects | 2007 | Review | |
| Mindfulness Interventions | 2016 | Review | |
| Mind the Hype: A Critical Evaluation and Prescriptive Agenda for Research on Mindfulness and Meditation | 2017 | Review | |
| Mindfulness and acceptance: expanding the cognitive-behavioral tradition | 2005 | Review |
Citations in the library
Cites 27
- Alterations in Brain and Immune Function Produced by Mindfulness Meditation Psychosomatic Medicine July 1, 2003
- Meditation experience is associated with increased cortical thickness Neuroreport November 7, 2005
- Association of an Educational Program in Mindful Communication With Burnout, Empathy, and Attitudes Among Primary Care Physicians JAMA September 22, 2009
- Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction for Health Care Professionals: Results From a Randomized Trial. International Journal of Stress Management May 1, 2005
- Mindfulness Meditation and Improvement in Sleep Quality and Daytime Impairment Among Older Adults With Sleep Disturbances JAMA Internal Medicine February 16, 2015
and 22 more in the library