“Improving Healing Encounters by Addressing Physician Burnout: A study to Assess a Pastoral Care Approach for Physician-to-Physician Mentoring"
Rachel Forbes Kaufman, MTh, Coalition for Physician Well-Being
“All healthy religion shows (us) what to do with (our) pain. . . .but if we cannot find a way to transform our pain, we will transmit it—usually to those closest to us. . . .and the most vulnerable. . . . ” Richard Rohr, OSF
Suffering is evident in health care, in patients’ rooms and visitors’ waiting areas, but there is also pervasive and growing evidence of suffering within the physician community. A growing body of evidence has identified dangerous and persistent levels of professional burnout and suicide plaguing the physician and medical student communities. The trend now leads some physicians, and others, to question whether physicians can adequately attend to the pain and suffering of their patients.
Many physicians report carrying a heavy load of painful experiences, many of which remain just below the surface of their consciousness. Left unexamined, these tapped-down feelings can haunt physicians, distort their humanity, reduce their effectiveness as practitioners, and limit their ability to be wholesome healers.
Despite numerous physician wellness interventions, efficacy and effectiveness are difficult to prove, largely for want of a suitable study design. This lecture will highlight the first multi-year study to evaluate a pastoral-care approach for physician-to-physician mentoring, known as Life Centered Mentoring (LCM). The formal study is being sponsored by the Coalition for Physician Well-Being (www.forphysicianwellbeing.org), a national not-for-profit group singularly dedicated to the well-being of physicians, and St. Vincent/Ascension Foundation. The research is being conducted within Ascension Health's Indiana ministry, one of the largest medical groups within Ascension. The study was designed to assess and track the impact of the pastoral-focused approach for physician-to-physician mentoring, as it was applied inside a Medicus Integra© Award winning health system. This presentation will address the challenges of conducting such a study, discuss interim findings--including the learning experiences of the study team--and will offer video-testimonials of the “Lived Experiences” of physicians participating in the study protocol.
The LCM approach has the potential to relieve suffering within health care communities: for patients and practitioners. The project team has also integrated the LCM approach into an osteopathic medical school program with similar positive “Lived Experiences”. Interim findings suggest this pastoral care approach of peer mentoring can cost-effectively and efficiently be replicated in other institutions, whether with medical students, resident physicians or practicing physicians. The senior study author preliminarily concludes, “when physicians have a safe-space to grapple with their pain, the pain can be transformed. And in this transformation, physicians will not only be better equipped to journey with suffering patients, they can grow to be transformational sources of healing, in many spheres of human life.”
Suffering is evident in health care, in patients’ rooms and visitors’ waiting areas, but there is also pervasive and growing evidence of suffering within the physician community. A growing body of evidence has identified dangerous and persistent levels of professional burnout and suicide plaguing the physician and medical student communities. The trend now leads some physicians, and others, to question whether physicians can adequately attend to the pain and suffering of their patients.
Many physicians report carrying a heavy load of painful experiences, many of which remain just below the surface of their consciousness. Left unexamined, these tapped-down feelings can haunt physicians, distort their humanity, reduce their effectiveness as practitioners, and limit their ability to be wholesome healers.
Despite numerous physician wellness interventions, efficacy and effectiveness are difficult to prove, largely for want of a suitable study design. This lecture will highlight the first multi-year study to evaluate a pastoral-care approach for physician-to-physician mentoring, known as Life Centered Mentoring (LCM). The formal study is being sponsored by the Coalition for Physician Well-Being (www.forphysicianwellbeing.org), a national not-for-profit group singularly dedicated to the well-being of physicians, and St. Vincent/Ascension Foundation. The research is being conducted within Ascension Health's Indiana ministry, one of the largest medical groups within Ascension. The study was designed to assess and track the impact of the pastoral-focused approach for physician-to-physician mentoring, as it was applied inside a Medicus Integra© Award winning health system. This presentation will address the challenges of conducting such a study, discuss interim findings--including the learning experiences of the study team--and will offer video-testimonials of the “Lived Experiences” of physicians participating in the study protocol.
The LCM approach has the potential to relieve suffering within health care communities: for patients and practitioners. The project team has also integrated the LCM approach into an osteopathic medical school program with similar positive “Lived Experiences”. Interim findings suggest this pastoral care approach of peer mentoring can cost-effectively and efficiently be replicated in other institutions, whether with medical students, resident physicians or practicing physicians. The senior study author preliminarily concludes, “when physicians have a safe-space to grapple with their pain, the pain can be transformed. And in this transformation, physicians will not only be better equipped to journey with suffering patients, they can grow to be transformational sources of healing, in many spheres of human life.”