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Mindful Practitioners, Mindful Teams, and Mindful Organizations: Attending to the Core Tasks of Medicine

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Abstract

Distraction in health care is best seen as a mismatch between capabilities (of individuals, teams, and organizations) and the nature of the work that they must accomplish. Mindful practice refers to ways of enhancing those capabilities. Focusing attention on what is most important in the workplace can be achieved by enhancing self-awareness within individuals, situation and emotional awareness within teams, and the structure of healthcare organizations. Collectively, these efforts can affect quality of care, human relationships, and sustainability of the healthcare workforce. Individual, team, and organizational change strategies all require development of attentive observation, critical curiosity, beginner’s mind, and presence. I propose ways of optimizing the healthcare work environment through contemplative practices, team training, and organizational redesign to address distractions that emanate from within one’s one mind as well as those coming from the workplace.

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  1. Center for Communication and Disparities Research, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, 1381 South Avenue, Rochester, NY, USA

    Ronald M. Epstein MD

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  1. University of Rochester Medical Center, Pittsford, New York, USA

    Peter J. Papadakos

  2. Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures, The University of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario, Canada

    Stephen Bertman

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Epstein, R.M. (2017). Mindful Practitioners, Mindful Teams, and Mindful Organizations: Attending to the Core Tasks of Medicine. In: Papadakos, P., Bertman, S. (eds) Distracted Doctoring. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-48707-6_17

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