Loving-kindness meditation: a tool to improve healthcare provider compassion, resilience, and patient care
Emma M Seppala, Cendri A Hutcherson, Dong TH Nguyen, James R Doty, James J Gross
Journal of Compassionate Health Care September 26, 2014 DOI: 10.1186/s40639-014-0005-9 via OpenAlex
Summary
AI-generated from the abstractA brief 10-minute session of loving-kindness meditation (LKM) increases compassion and positive affect more effectively than other positive-affect inductions or neutral visualization, even in novice meditators. LKM improved well-being and feelings of social connection at both explicit and implicit levels while decreasing self-focus. These findings suggest LKM could be a practical, time-effective way to reduce burnout and promote resilience in healthcare providers and improve patient care quality.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Randomized controlled trial Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Interventions | Loving-kindness meditation non-compassion positive affect induction neutral visualization |
| Duration | 10-minute session |
| Citations | 113 |
| Key finding | Loving-kindness meditation improves well-being and feelings of connection over and above other positive-affect inductions, while decreasing self-focus in under 10 minutes and in novice meditators. |
Abstract
Background: Stress is a critical problem facing many healthcare institutions. The consequences of stress include increased provider burnout and decreased quality of care for patients. Ironically, a key factor that may help buffer the impact of stress on provider well-being and patient health outcomes-compassion-is low in healthcare settings and declines under stress. This gives rise to an urgent question: what practical steps can be taken to increase compassion, thereby benefitting both provider well-being and patient care? Methods: We investigated the relative effectiveness of a short, 10-minute session of loving-kindness meditation (LKM) to increase compassion and positive affect. We compared LKM to a non-compassion positive affect induction (PAI) and a neutral visualization (NEU) condition. Self-and other-focused affect, self-reported measures of social connection, and semi-implicit measures of self-focus were measured pre-and post-meditation using repeated measures ANOVAs and via paired sample t-tests for follow-up comparisons. Results: Findings show that LKM improves well-being and feelings of connection over and above other positive-affect inductions, at both explicit and implicit levels, while decreasing self-focus in under 10 minutes and in novice meditators. Conclusions: These findings suggest that LKM may be a viable, practical, and time-effective solution for preventing burnout and promoting resilience in healthcare providers and for improving quality of care in patients.