Why the study?
Contemplative practices promote well-being, work engagement, and resilience, but the impact of The Pause on health care providers' physiological stress response needed examination.
Does The Pause improve physiological stress markers (heart rate variability, heart rate, blood pressure) in health care providers following a stressful medical simulation?
Does The Pause improve physiological stress markers (heart rate variability, heart rate, blood pressure) in health care providers following a stressful medical simulation?
A brief contemplative intervention ('The Pause') following a stressful medical simulation significantly improved heart rate variability among healthcare providers, suggesting reduced stress reactivity.
May support brief contemplative pauses to ease provider stress in simulations; leaves open real-world effects on resilience and outcomes.
Contemplative practices promote well-being, work engagement and resilience among health care providers. We examined the impact of The Pause, a brief contemplative intervention, on health care providers’ physiological stress response. Participants were randomly assigned to either The Pause or the control group. They participated in a high-fidelity, stressful medical simulation. Following the simulation, intervention group practiced The Pause. Outcome measures were heart rate variability, heart rate, and blood pressure. We adjusted for baseline physiological variables, sociodemographic variables, self-care practices, and perceived stress. Participants in the intervention group had a standard deviation of the normal-to-normal RR intervals (heart rate variability indicator) that was 13.8 (95% CI 4.0, 23.5; p < .01) points higher than those in the control group. There were no significant effects of The Pause on heart rate or blood pressure. The Pause may reduce stress reactivity, increase heart rate variability, and enhance resilience in health care providers.
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Çayır et al. (2021) studied this question.
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