Abstract
A five-week mindful self-compassion (MSC) training significantly improved self-compassion among health professions students, demonstrating its potential as an effective tool for promoting student well-being and supporting academic and clinical success.
Primary Author and Speaker: Danielle Losonci
Health professions students experience psychological stress as well as mental health disorders (Murakami et al., 2019). Self-compassion is a tool that can serve as a protective factor against the pressures and stressors endemic to higher education. Self-compassion involves treating oneself with attention and kindness and not criticizing one’s challenges but rather viewing them as a common human experience. A large body of research supports the beneficial nature of self-compassion; it is linked to psychological well-being (Zessin et al., 2015) and negatively associated with stress, anxiety, and depression (MacBeth & Gumley, 2012). Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) training is an empirically supported, psychoeducational approach to developing one’s inner resources for self-compassion that encourages a proactive way of relating to oneself and coping with everyday challenges (Neff & Germer, 2012). However, there is limited research exploring the efficacy of MSC interventions for health professions students. A single group, pre- and post-intervention research design was used to evaluate the effectiveness of a five-week MSC training at increasing self-compassion in health professions students. An occupational therapy (OT) educator and student co-investigators facilitated five in-person MSC training sessions. Participants (N=7 OT students) completed a pre and post-intervention Self-Compassion Scale (SCS), exit interviews, and a follow-up survey. A paired t-test compared means on aggregate SCS pre- and post-intervention scores, revealing a significant improvement in self-compassion (p < .05). In exit interviews, participants reported integration of self-compassion in their lives, a finding maintained at the three-month follow-up. This pilot suggests that MSC training can significantly improve self-compassion in health professions students and highlights an opportunity for educators to harness its power to promote student well-being and support academic and clinical success.
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