Mindful Self-Care Among Healthcare Professionals in a Urology Outpatient Clinic: A QI Project

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this quality improvement (QI) project was to introduce Mindful Self-Care (MSC) to healthcare professionals in a urology outpatient clinic (UOC) and to improve intentions of MSC practices. This QI project was designed to implement a facilitation session guided by Mindful Self-Care Scales (MSCS) Brief to assess areas of strengths and weaknesses of self-care and to increase healthcare professionals’ intentions to practice MSC. Background: Burnout is a state of psychological, emotional, and physical stress in response to work stress, which was first defined in 1974 by Herbert Freudenberger (1974). Burnout affected more than 60% of family practice providers with the root cause of work stress, which results in poor physical and mental health outcomes, lack of motivation, absenteeism, and decreased quality of care and safety (Lacy & Chan, 2018). Burnouts of healthcare professionals have reached alarming levels but remain underrecognized. Research findings support self-care among healthcare providers as an effective intervention. This QI project was to improve MSC practices among healthcare professionals for promoting wellness and decreasing burnout. Theory & Methods: The MSCS-Brief created by Cook-Cottone and Guyker (2018) was adopted in assessing healthcare professionals’ areas of strengths and weaknesses of self-care. The Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) model guided the implementation of this QI project. In this first PDSA cycle, healthcare professionals at the clinic attended the facilitation session, assessed their self-care, and reported their willingness to adopt self-care. Subsequent PDSA cycles will utilize the results of the surveys to assess the effectiveness of the interventions and intentions for adoption of future MSC practices. Outcomes: The outcomes measured by the pre-post surveys included scores of the frequency of individual’s behaviors in six domains of self-care. Participants gained understanding of these scores and how they are linked to interventions to improve MSC. Conclusion: Aligning with current literature findings, this QI project aimed to increase intentions of MSC interventions to improve well-being and potentially reduce healthcare professional burnout. Findings will inform future iterations of the facilitation session. The asynchronous design of the facilitation session lends itself to adoption throughout the clinic and potential use for onboarding future providers.