TY - JOUR
T1 - Exploring the role of mindfulness as a potential self-management strategy for physiotherapy students when on placement
AU - Thomson, Di
AU - Gowing, Francesca
AU - English, Michael
AU - Hassenkamp, Ann-Marie
PY - 2017/12/31
Y1 - 2017/12/31
N2 - Healthcare programmes tend to neglect exploring self-care strategies for students whilst they are
on their clinical placements. There is evidence that students experience placements as
challenging because of the long hours, and endeavouring to meet the needs of many patients
across diverse challenging settings. Mindfulness is a potential self-management strategy to
enable students to manage the challenges and resultant stress during these times, and to work
optimally within their competences. This study explores the role of mindfulness in attempting to
meet these challenges. Purposive sampling was used to recruit nineteen MSc pre-registration
physiotherapy students who received a two-hour mindfulness intervention prior to commencing
their placement, and were encouraged to practice mindfulness for 30 minutes three times a week
with a CD whilst on placement or in their own time. Additionally, they were asked to practice for
10-15 minutes 'mindfulness of the breath' during this period. A qualitative approach that
incorporated thematic analysis was used to analyse the audio-recorded and transcribed pre- and
post-placement focus groups. Perceived benefits from practising mindfulness were: a lessening
of intrinsic stress, and an ability to cope with extrinsic stress with increased clarity and objectivity.
The CD proved burdensome amongst the students, largely owing to time constraints, but this did
not deter their desire to implement mindfulness during this time, and they devised alternative and
individual modes of practicing this mind-body-based approach. This study lends evidence to
support inclusion of mindfulness into the physiotherapy curriculum as a self-
AB - Healthcare programmes tend to neglect exploring self-care strategies for students whilst they are
on their clinical placements. There is evidence that students experience placements as
challenging because of the long hours, and endeavouring to meet the needs of many patients
across diverse challenging settings. Mindfulness is a potential self-management strategy to
enable students to manage the challenges and resultant stress during these times, and to work
optimally within their competences. This study explores the role of mindfulness in attempting to
meet these challenges. Purposive sampling was used to recruit nineteen MSc pre-registration
physiotherapy students who received a two-hour mindfulness intervention prior to commencing
their placement, and were encouraged to practice mindfulness for 30 minutes three times a week
with a CD whilst on placement or in their own time. Additionally, they were asked to practice for
10-15 minutes 'mindfulness of the breath' during this period. A qualitative approach that
incorporated thematic analysis was used to analyse the audio-recorded and transcribed pre- and
post-placement focus groups. Perceived benefits from practising mindfulness were: a lessening
of intrinsic stress, and an ability to cope with extrinsic stress with increased clarity and objectivity.
The CD proved burdensome amongst the students, largely owing to time constraints, but this did
not deter their desire to implement mindfulness during this time, and they devised alternative and
individual modes of practicing this mind-body-based approach. This study lends evidence to
support inclusion of mindfulness into the physiotherapy curriculum as a self-
KW - Health services research
U2 - 10.18552/ijpblhsc.v5i2.394
DO - 10.18552/ijpblhsc.v5i2.394
M3 - Article
SN - 2051-6223
VL - 5
SP - 19
EP - 37
JO - International Journal of Practice-Based Learning in Health and Social Care
JF - International Journal of Practice-Based Learning in Health and Social Care
IS - 2
ER -