Faculty receive funding to create mindfulness-based training program for surgical trainees

Faculty members in our Department have received funding to create a mindfulness-based training program for surgical residents and trainees.

Dr. Elizabeth Miazga, Dr. Andrea Simpson, Dr. Dana Soroka and Dr. Brenna Swift received $9,835.50 in funding from the Temerty Faculty of Medicine for a project entitled, “Creation of a novel mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) curriculum for surgical trainees: Mindfulness Integration in Surgical Training (MIST) 2.”

The project originally grew from discussions amongst the team about how various stressors can not only impact a surgeon’s ability to perform their job, but their mental wellbeing more generally. The team’s research has illustrated the myriad benefits that mindfulness training can have.

“There is a lot of high-level evidence showing that mindfulness is a great, practical tool to improve performance and combat burnout, anxiety, and depression,” Dr. Miazga explains. “Mindfulness has been used across many sectors of elite performance, from athletes to military personnel to CEOs of big businesses. It uses meditation and different mental exercises to connect your thoughts, feelings, and actions.”

“Aside from just impacting your performance at work, we think this can holistically improve life overall.”

As just one example of mindfulness training at work in a surgical setting, Dr. Miazga points to the “mindful scrub.”

“When we enter the operating room, you could have a million things running through your head — your patients, your kids, that meeting you have after work. But you really want to enter the OR and be completely focused on your patient and your surgery,” Dr. Miazga explains.

“The idea of the ‘mindful scrub’ is that when you’re scrubbing in, you’re doing a mindful activity. So instead of focusing on those other thoughts, you’re actually focused on physical feelings — the sound of the water, the sensation of scrubbing, the smell of the soap — that help bring your mind to the present moment and the task at hand. Then you enter the OR set and ready for the activity.”

The team ran a similar course for the first time in 2021 for residents and received enthusiastic feedback, with trainees reporting that it helped boost their performance and reduce their anxiety.

Now, the project team will use this new funding to develop a course specifically geared toward surgical trainees. Further down the road, they hope to run a similar mindfulness training course for ob-gyn faculty members as well.

“We’re really excited because we can now go back to basics to create a course that really helps surgeons and ob-gyns be their best selves at work,” Dr. Miazga said.

“Mindfulness helps you be present in the moment in the operating room, and to focus on factors within your control and let go of some of the factors that aren’t. Those are skills we can use not only as surgeons, but as people in our lives.”