From the COVID-19 Front Lines: ‘I Was Exhausted. Mindfulness Can Really Help’
这pandemic has strained the healthcare system and the doctors, nurses, and other providers who work in it. New data shows mindfulness interventions can help.
2020年5月，在俄亥俄州哥伦布和周围的富兰克林县，严重的Covid-19率一遍又一遍地飙升。被新冠状病毒感染的人被淹没在俄亥俄州立大学（OSU）韦克斯纳医学中心。
凯尔西·布莱克（Kelsey Black），医学博士，，，，in the first year of a fellowship training program in pulmonology critical care there, was tasked with the roles of determining which patients needed to go on ventilators and then helping her team intubate them. “We take care of the sickest of the sick with COVID-19,” Dr. Black says. “We saw people die and had people on ventilators for long periods of time.”
Patients’ families were distraught. They wanted to know why they couldn’t be at the bedside of their loved ones, Black says. Healthcare teams were still learning about the new virus and how to stay safe.
她说，弄清楚如何在保护自己和您的医疗保健工作者的同时保持工作平衡是压力很大的。“当我们自己学习时，我们正在帮助家庭应对一种新疾病。”
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In November, Black heard about and took the Mindfulness in Motion course, a mindfulness-based intervention developed by other OSU researchers and offered virtually at the medical center.
“我一直对正念从研究的角度来看。现在，我个人发现它很有帮助，”她说。
这OSU course teaches individuals how to notice their feelings, thoughts and responses in the moment — and how to use tools like正念meditation，，，，breathing exercises, and yoga to boost awareness and reduce stress. Some of the techniques Black learned include: scanning her body for tension and noticing her breathing. She also learned simple techniques for feeling grounded and relaxed, including瑜伽姿势（例如树木，椅子和鹰姿势）可以在工作中完成。她学会了自我测量技术。
“正念之所以起作用，是因为它是恢复的门户，”Maryanna Klatt, PhD，，，，a professor of clinical family medicine at Ohio State who developed the program. “Once you’re aware of what’s really going on for you in a difficult situation or really any situation, you have the power to deal with it. You can do something about it or let it go. It works because its grounded in each person’s real, in-the-moment experience.”
布莱克说，即使是几秒钟的正念休息时间，也有助于在过去一年中最紧张的时刻成为第一名的第一名。
“When I’m busy there isn’t always time for a 10-minute meditation,” Black says. “But just taking five breaths is something I do. I put my feet on the floor, let my muscles relax, stack the vertebrae in my spine so I’m sitting up straight and do some diaphragmatic breathing through pursed lips. It can really help, especially if I’m feeling overwhelmed.”
And now, new research from Dr. Klatt’s group that evaluated the effectiveness of the Mindfulness in Motion program found that it can indeed ease burn-out, stress and emotional exhaustion for a wide range of people working in healthcare.
这study waspublished in January 2021 in the journalGlobal Advances in Health and Medicineand found significant mental-health benefits for 267 hospital workers — doctors and nurses as well as therapists, pharmacists, dietitians, and administrative assistants — who took the free eight-week mindfulness class and practiced on their own with videos.
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Data Show Mindfulness Programs Can Curb Stress and Burnout
Researchers began collecting data for the recent study years before theCOVID-19 pandemicbegan, tracking outcomes of healthcare works who participated in Klatt’s Mindfulness in Motion program between 2017 and 2019.
该论文还跟踪了克拉特在大流行开始时通过OSU在线提供的减轻压力减轻压力，五到六分钟的正念视频。这publicly-available videos在最初的90天内被观看了10,896次。克拉特说：“我们现在的观看次数超过20,000。”
参加正念课程的研究志愿者还填写了八周计划之前和之后的调查表，该计划衡量了倦怠，bob bet体育 ，，，，弹力，，，，and engagement at work.
After completing the program, 27 percent fewer participants met criteria for burnout, which is significant because job burnout is a widespread risk for healthcare workers in high-stress environments. Levels of perceived stress dropped. Scores for弹力参与者的工作大幅增加，参与者报告了更多的活力，吸收和对工作的奉献精神。
该研究还追踪了30分钟视频“正念助推器会议”的观点，这些视频在大流行期间可供医学中心的所有医疗保健从业者使用。助推器视频在最初的90天内获得了1,720次观看次数，而五到六分钟的正念视频克拉特在大流行的早期开发了60天内的8,471次观看次数。克拉特说：“这些人不仅是医院的员工，因此我们不知道谁在看，”克拉特说。“但显然人们很感兴趣。”
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Why Mindfulness Helps: ‘I Notice the Good Moments That Sustain Me’
在健康紧急情况下，可以帮助急救人员压力和精疲力尽的干预措施很重要。医疗保健从业人员在19009年大流行期间经历了前所未有的压力，焦虑和疲惫水平。在全国性的紧急医疗技术人员，护士，医生，治疗师和其他医护人员的调查中美国心理健康，，，，76 percent reported burnout, 75 percent said they were overwhelmed, and more than half reported sleep problems. One in 4 U.K. hospital workers, including doctors and nurses, hadsigns of post-traumatic stress disorder在一个study published December 29, 2020, inBJPsych Open。
“当你处理所有的极端疾病time, it’s hard to see the positives,” Black says of her experience treating patients with COVID-19. “The course helped me stay open to what’s going on around me. I notice the beautiful interactions between staff members and families, the ways coworkers come together as a team, and the good moments that sustain me.”
Klatt says her group is currently working on two-minute videos that nurses and other healthcare practitioners can use during very short breaks such as between patients. These new videos are the result of a request for such tools from a critical-care nursing supervisor, Klatt says. “The short videos are like using a rescue吸入器during an哮喘发作帮助你度过高压力和焦虑。这y will include a simple stretch or relaxation move to reduce tension, a breathing exercise, and a [reminder] to check in with yourself.”
John Shepard, RN印第安纳大学卫生系统的重症监护护士和正念计划经理说，他认为即使是简短的正念时刻，也减少了他在印第安纳州工作的16院系统的压力。
Shepard was not involved with Klatt’s work. But he’s found similar results from a five-week course he teaches called Aware or through the “pop-up” mindfulness sessions he leads for hospital staffers.
“We’ll do a few yoga stretches, a mindfulness exercise with breathing, and we often end with laughter yoga,” he says. “When a group of people simulate deep belly laughs — just making the sounds and using their breath — pretty soon people find themselves smiling and laughing for real.”
由于大流行，护士和其他医疗保健工作者紧张，bob bet体育 ，谢泼德说。“我们关心的每个人都穿过大门，无论他们戴着面具并练习社交竞争，无论他们是否赞成新的Covid-19疫苗。我们必须超越个人感受。它可能会造成损失。”
是什么使正念干预在规模上成功：连接和投资
In Klatt’s classes and Shepard’s pop-up sessions, group support plays a quietly important roll.
Klatt, who leads the virtual Mindfulness in Motion classes, says sessions begin with participants asking one another questions and sharing responses. “It’s good to know you’re not in this alone. To see that other people have different responses to situations is so valuable. And we hear new ideas about resilience and mindfulness every week from participants.”
Having time with colleagues to acknowledge emotions and vulnerability is also important, Shepard says. “It’s a place where you don’t have to be tough,” he says.
Klatt and Shepard also note that their programs are successful because the institutions where they work supports them. The investment of money and staff to develop programs is important; so is giving staff permission to work on mindfulness while they’re at work, right on the frontlines of medicine.
“People take Mindfulness in Motion during the workday,” Klatt says. “They have the support to leave their job for an hour a week, turn off their cell phones, and focus on this. That makes a big difference for them in the moment — with long-term benefits for their own health and for the care of patients”
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