Mindfulness At Work: Dental Practice

Published on: 2018/08/06

Dr. Preethy Vijayakumar

Abstract

Day to day dental practice has become increasingly stressful while dealing with administrative and patient needs. As the practice of mindfulness gains momentum, a number of studies have presented their benefits in a healthcare setting.

Interest Category

Mindfulness for dentists, healthcare, dentists

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Mindfulness at work

In today’s world, we are bombarded with a lot of information, it can be from your smartphone, email, your meetings at work, your presentations or event the tasks that you are planning for the day.

Your mind is constantly processing some kind of information from all these sources. So, concentrating or being mindful on what you are doing becomes difficult. Even if you try to concentrate, or be aware of what you are doing at the moment, the things that are going on around you makes you unconsciously think about it.  Let alone the information, every working professional is undergoing tremendous stress which has called for practicing mindfulness. Mindfulness is a state of being conscious of what you are doing.

Mindfulness for doctors

Doctors, like every other professional, have busy schedules every day like handling patients, admin tasks, surgeries, training, meetings, etc. Many work round the clock even through the wee hours, which makes their job more stressful. Mindfulness helps doctors to deal with their personal stress and be more compassionate. This, in turn, helps to reduce clinical errors.

What are the benefits of mindfulness?

  1. Increased focus
  2. Calmness while dealing with long cases
  3. Increased compassion and empathy
  4. Reduced physical exhaustion and emotional fatigue
  5. Improved efficiency and productivity

How can we practice mindfulness at work?

Here are a few quick tips that can help you be mindful at work:

Avoid multitasking

While working multitasking may sometimes pull all the tasks down and reduces your efficiency. At the end of the day, you may get a feeling that you have not completed any of the tasks that you had planned. If you get lost in your tasks, stop multitasking. Concentrate on a single task at a time and complete it before starting the next one.

 

Take short breaks

You cannot be concentrating on your work all through your working hours. Spending a lot of time at a stretch can slow down your brain and you may feel drained at a point of time. Take a break for a few seconds, before seeing the next patient. Pause, breathe and find your feet on the ground. This makes your mind to be more focused. While it is easy said than done, taking a break may not be possible unless you practice it.

Read more – Dr. Preethy Vijayakumar explains the need for mindfulness in dental practice and the benefits that it can have on the doctors.

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