Over 250 health care professionals underwent The Living Well Program© offered by the Art of Living Foundation, a global pioneer in yoga and meditation based stress and life management for more than 35 years. Busy medical doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals seeking to build a proficient practice for self-care to enrich their quality of life and patient care took this program against the backdrop of 36th AAPI convention for physicians. The attending physicians and health care professionals learnt some ancient profound wisdom and some highly effective research based scientific tools and techniques like the Sudarshan Kriya© to reverse and prevent burnout issue that is highly prevalent in the medical community. The presenters Dr Sarita Patel, MD and John Osborne presented the scientific studies done on Sudarshan Kriya.
Recognizing the importance and essentiality of self-care for physicians, the NYU Post-Graduate Medical School and ANA has designated the Living Well Program for 10-30 CME (AMA PRA category 1 CME credits) and 10-30 CNE credits respectively and these programs are offered nationwide. By attending this program in Columbus, Ohio during the physician's convention on July 4-6, HCP not only learnt excellent hands-on self-care tools, but also earnt 10 CME / CNE credits.
One recent report of American Foundation for Suicide Prevention mentions that 300-400 physicians die by suicide annually. That’s almost a doctor a day. Suicide generally is caused by the convergence of multiple risk factors — the most common being untreated or inadequately managed mental health conditions. Mental health problems are best addressed by combining healthy self-care strategies (which should not include self-medicating) along with effective treatment for mental health conditions.
A growing body of research shows that physician burnout and depression are linked to medical errors and to the kind of depersonalized care that is often both less effective and less palatable. According to the American Medical Association, burnout and ignoring the source of problems is not the way to wellness. Meditation can help to protect the mind, which can help healers to heal while they maintain personal well-being.
AAPI — American Association for Physicians of Indian Origin represents the interests of approximately 100,000 physicians in the United States of America. It is one of the largest physician organization in the USA, second only to AMA (the American Medical Association); and the largest ethnic physician organization in the USA.
AAPI held its 36th annual convention Columbus Ohio from July 4-8th, 2018. Global spiritual leader, peace ambassador and the founder of Art of Living, Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar was a keynote speaker this year.
For the first time in the history of AAPI, this year AAPI took on a bold initiative to address physician burnout, resiliency building and stress management for healthcare professionals by offering the Living Well Program offered by the Art of Living foundation as part of CME sessions at the convention.
Gurudev gave the keynote address on Jul 6th addressing close to 2000 physicians. As part of his keynote, he emphasized the importance of making Ayurveda—an ancient healing science, an integral part of continued medical education. He also suggested that the MDs learn the Nadi Pariksha (pulse reading) for preventive diagnosis of the patients. He also talked about self care which is essential for healthcare professionals and talked about how regular practice of meditation helps.
Several doctors expressed their interest to bring the Living Well Program to their institutions and colleagues. Dionicio Sandoval, MD mentioned, “The program by far exceeded my expectations. What I learned for sure will help me in the future and in the present. I give them an A+, they’ve pretty much shown me to see all of the colors of life again, made me realize I was becoming color blind.”
Another physician C. Knoll, MD said, “Only recently have I become open to non-Western approaches to health and well-being. That being said, I had low expectations (but not NO expectations), of how this course might help me. However, I have been pleasantly surprised to find that in a few short hours, I have noticed significant improvement in my focus and calmness.”
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The Living Well Program for HCPs is designed for medical doctors seeking to build a proficient practice for their own self-care and enrich their quality of life. Health care professionals are inspired to serve their patients and profession. But in the process of caring for their patient’s needs the care provider is subject to many stressors, all of these can lead to stress and physician burnout. The Living Well Program for HCPs provides an opportunity to learn simple practices that can enhance physical, mental, spiritual and social well-being. By the end of the program, the healthcare provider will be equipped with specific techniques that can be practiced daily. It is also designed to provide physicians and allied health professionals with an update on the latest research in yoga, breathing practices and meditation and their therapeutic applications, including benefits and risks. The Living Well programs are offered at multiple locations across the country as non-residential program as well as residential programs over 3-5 days earning up to 10-30 CME or CNE credits. The AMA PRA category 1 CME/CNE credits are jointly provided by the Art of Living Foundation in partnership with NYU post graduate medical school and American Nurses Credentialing Center respectively. For more details: https://www.artofliving.org/us-en/living-well