The International Journal of Whole Person Care
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Presence and the paradox of time for palliative care clinicians: a phenomenological study
Get PDFBackground: A presence of quality is recognized as a central competence for palliative care clinicians in their mission to accompany patients and families in their end-of-life journey. However, PC clinicians’ capacity for presence may be affected by the increasing emotional, professional and organizational demands of their working environment. Those demands may, in turn, affect quality of care and clinicians’ health. To our knowledge, no previous study has aimed at a better understanding of how PC clinicians view and experience presence in their day-to-day work, although this holds the potential of generating insights to help clinicians develop and cultivate a high-quality presence towards dying patients.Methods: We conducted in-depth qualitative semi-structured interviews with 10 PC clinicians working on a specialized PC ward, later analyzed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis.Results: Results account for three essential themes describing the experience of presence; connection to the self, to the other and to the meaning of care. Results also suggest that presence was lived and experienced within a very particular relation to time, which appeared to our participants as a significant challenge in achieving high-quality presence.Conclusion: The stressful working environment in which PC clinicians daily evolve appeared as a threat to presence for our participants. Paradoxically, cultivating presence with mindfulness may be a promising tool to better cope with the competing demands of work and to foster clinicians’ resilience to stress
Vulnerability; a breath of fresh air
Get PDFThis work explores my constantly evolving view on the presence of vulnerability within the medical profession and how it can positively impact the patient-doctor relationship. This work is informed by my clinical experience, however junior I may be with regards to my training
Greenery
Get PDFThe following narrative essay is a combined narrative of many instances during a surgical rotation
The Development and Implementation of a Longitudinal Wellness Curriculum for McGill University’s Undergraduate Medical Program
Get PDFMedical students report high rates of psychological distress and morbidity throughout their training. Poor psychological well-being among medical students can interfere with learning and success in medical school, decrease quality of life, and negatively impact quality patient care. Education may be a promising tool to enhance medical students’ resilience, well-being, and mental health. The WELL Office in the Faculty of Medicine at McGill University has developed a novel, 4-year Longitudinal Wellness Curriculum to promote medical students’ personal and professional well-being, and foster a culture of resilience within the learning environment. We present a description of the design, development, and implementation of our Wellness Curriculum. We discuss future directions related to Wellness Curriculum research, evaluation, and application. The present Wellness Curriculum may provide an approach to wellness education for other medical programs.
Facilitating Social-Emotional Learning in the Workplace
Get PDFThe purpose of this commentary is to explain the integration of social emotional learning in higher education with faculty and staff. The University of West Georgia has established an applied holistic wellness lab, the Wolf Wellness Lab, that aims to facilitate social emotional learning for faculty and staff. The Wolf Wellness Lab was founded upon the National Wellness Institute’s framework of holistic health, including emotional, occupational, spiritual, intellectual, social, and physical health promotion. The Wolf Wellness Lab provides a variety of education, services and trainings for faculty and staff that can serve as a model for other universities, businesses, and community centers to facilitate SEL. The Wolf Wellness Lab has helped create an identity of social emotional learning and overall wellness in the department, college, and university at large, and such an identity and culture are often needed for successful and long-term healthy change. This commentary will discuss specific resources provided for faculty and staff that promote a culture of wellness
At the Heart of Trauma-Informed Care
Get PDF“Trauma-informed care” provides a framework to guide clinicians in responding to the epidemic of trauma. Yet few clinicians feel comfortable defining trauma-informed care or describing how it translates into practice. This reflective piece suggests four dimensions of trauma-informed care: 1) Awareness of the prevalence of trauma and its long-term effects on physical and emotional health to every encounter; 2) attitudes that recognize resilience and take into account how trauma may influence behavior and engagement in care; 3) an approach to care that prioritizes safety, choice and collaboration while working to build trust; and 4) education regarding trauma’s effects, and connection to resources to support healing. These dimensions seek to clarify the provider’s role in creating a trauma-informed health care environment and stimulate reflection on how best to serve patients affected by trauma
Inviting Introspection:Intentions for Ethical Engagement in Practice
Get PDFThe practice of medicine is full of ethical challenges. Although ethical principles and organizational formats can help clinicians manage these challenges, they do not necessarily help them develop the routine habit of bringing a focused ethical attentiveness to every patient encounter. In this article, the author—a seasoned generalist practitioner—describes how he has personally worked to cultivate this habit by holding in mind four introspective intentions. These intentions are aimed at alleviating suffering, promoting dignity, recognizing interdependency, and advancing wisdom, respectively. The author presents these intentions, reviews some benefits by which they enhance his work, and discusses some concerns they pose. He concludes by inviting other health care professionals and bioethical specialists to consider integrating intentions into their own clinical and consultative practices