Laura Nightengale Journal Star healthcare reporter @lauranight

PEORIA As concerns of depression and burnout among physicians rise nationally, a group of leaders at the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria are working to equip new doctors to avoid the issues plaguing current physicians.

Faculty, along with leaders from OSF HealthCare and UnityPoint Health-Peoria, are working to find ways to incorporate stress relief into medical school curricula. Since their inception, medical schools have taught training physicians how to care for patients, but never before has self-care been part of the conversation.

Wickham leads UICOMP's committee investigating how best to address the issue during training. First, the focus is on residents and first-year medical students who will be studying at the Peoria campus for the first time this fall. Eventually, Wickham said, wellness will be incorporated throughout medical school training.

With mounting research about elevated risk of burnout, depression and suicide among physicians, awareness is heightened. The body that accredits medical schools has issued a mandate that schools, at minimum, must provide a tool for self monitoring, but some schools are taking greater action.

"It's a very complex issue, but I think with the national attention that's being paid to this now, it gives everyone a mandate to move forward," Wickham said.

Mayo Clinic has developed a wellbeing index a software-based approach that uses yes/no questions and agree/disagree statements to assess burnout in physicians and other medical personnel that is being considered for use at UICOMP. Faculty members are also undertaking research projects to assess burnout levels in medical students and residents.

Dr. Bento Suares professor, senior associate dean for research and head of the department of cancer biology and pharmacology is one of several faculty at UICOMP and Methodist College of Nursing who have been trained in a program developed at Emory University called Cognitively Based Compassion Training, or CBCT, which will be one part of the overall approach to improve student wellness. CBCT incorporates meditation and mindfulness training to help people better recognize, understand and control their emotions.

Empathy, Suares explains, is an essential tool for practicing medicine, but sometimes manifests itself as a feeling of shared suffering. CBCT can help students learn to see patients in pain, but rather than suffer alongside them, aspire to improve their situation.

Part of that is rethinking how physicians relate to their patient. In reality not all patients can be saved in fact, all of them will die sooner or later under varying circumstances. A physician who suffers with every death quickly accumulates a great deal of suffering.

"That ability to transition from the suffering with to the aspirational mode, that's a skill that needs to be developed. Otherwise when you are out there facing this challenge, you just might not be able to," Suares said. "This is a skill that we have to develop. Or else we're going to harm ourselves and we're not going to be able to help others as it was our intention, or else why would we have chosen this profession in the first place?"

CBCT is being taught at UICOMP through eight weekly sessions, 90 minutes each. So far, most of the students in CBCT have been faculty and community leaders, with a small number of residents and medical students. This fall, the course will be offered to all students, though it will not be required.

During CBCT, students will practice mindfulness: paying close attention to their emotions, raising their level of introspective awareness and controlling wandering thoughts. That will be followed by how to create emotional space: how to see a problem, without feeling like a part of the problem. Finally, comes self-compassion: being kinder to themselves and realistic in their expectations of success.

"We have the ability with this greater awareness of the present moment to catch a spark before it becomes a fire," Suares said.

Laura Nightengaleis the Journal Star's health and lifestyle reporter. She can be reached at 686-3181 or lnightengale@pjstar.com. Follow her on Twitter @lauranight.

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Why medical schools are teaching self-care alongside patient care - Peoria Journal Star