Mindfulness therapies on health professionals

Abstract

Health professionals are exposed to situations of emotional vulnerability by being incontinuous contact with patients and their suffering, which can cause conditions such as compassionfatigue. To address this issue, therapies such as mindfulness are being used to reduce stress andpromote self-compassion. The objective of this research was to carry out a systematic review and meta-analysis to analyse the types of mindfulness interventions that are being used for healthcareprofessionals and their effectiveness in reducing stress and improving self-compassion andmindfulness. Following the PRISMA guideline, a systematic review of original studies was carried outin the following databases: Medline, Scopus, Cinhal, PsycINFO, Lilacs, and Science Direct, without alimited time frame. Controlled experimental mindfulness interventions on health professionals wereselected, in which the following outcome variables were measured: stress, self-compassion, andmindfulness. A meta-analysis was performed with a random effects model. In cases of very highheterogeneity, the data were analysed by subgroup. Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Therapy(MBSR) was the most often used in the studies. There is diversity in the implementation of MBSR, anda common finding is a reduction of stress and increased mindfulness in health professionals. However,studies that analyse self-compassion are scarce. The effect of these therapies varies depending on howlong the individual has been practising meditation. In conclusion, more studies are needed to describethe clinical usefulness of these programmes, to jointly analyse these three variables (stress, self-compassion, and mindfulness), and to measure compassion fatigue as an outcome variable.