Moments of mindfulness bring calm to busy teams

It comes as clinical teams look for ways to promote positive mental health and team morale after the impacts of COVID-19 on frontline staff.

Dr Harry Gibbs, Deputy Director General Medicine at Alfred Health, said the trial, which saw Sandringham Hospital's multidisciplinary general medicine team undertaking mindfulness exercises daily prior to their ward round, had a positive impact.

“We found that the brief mindfulness activity acted as a circuit breaker to the team members’ days, which helped them feel more connected as a group and resulted in a better ward round experience,” Dr Gibbs said.

“We can make the assumption that this may also result in improved patient experience and outcomes, which we want to delve into deeper.”

The research outcomes are particularly significant given how unique quantitative research related to mindfulness in the workplace is, said Dr Gibbs.

“Studies around mindfulness at work generally rely on anecdotal information, which is important but which sometimes doesn’t give us the full picture,” Dr Gibbs said.

“What we were able to demonstrate with data from the teams was that there was a strong relationship between the mindfulness activities and increased team cohesion and focus.”

Teams across Alfred Health have gone on to implement a range of initiatives aimed at protecting and supporting staff mental health, such as staff wellness rooms, staff sessions on resilience and self-compassion and team building events.

“It’s crucial that as we continue recovering from the impacts of COVID that we look for ways to innovate and introduce practical strategies that holistically consider the wellbeing of our staff,” Dr Gibbs said.