Pharmacists can benefit from Mindfulness Practices
Mindful practices involve the awareness that arises when one nonjudgmentally pays attention on purpose in the present moment and finds the best possible ways to deal with those situations. Mindful-based practices can be useful in pharmacy, and it may help pharmacists to manage stress in their workplace. According to Cynthia Knapp Dlugosz (mindfulness expert), mindfulness practices can be beneficial to pharmacists in their daily practices. Physicians often engage in a lot of multitasking and burnout, which often affects their productivity with time. Mindfulness concerns not regretting the past or worrying about the future but merely being in the moment and appreciating it. This essay will critically analyze Dlugosz’s comments with a balanced discussion and conclusion using research evidence. Mindful practices are beneficial in reducing burnout and stress among pharmacists, but their implementation should be done appropriately to reduce the concerns and side effects associated with it.
Mindfulness can be effective in reducing stress, increasing productivity when practiced frequently, and in the appropriate manner. Most healthcare professionals, including physicians, perform numerous tasks at once, thus making them more likely to suffer from anxiety and pain. Pharmacists indeed multitask most of their practices in the workplace, and most of them report that the job messes up their lives as they feel a lot of pressure and burnout. Multiple distractions from multitasking can result in decision fatigue, and this can deteriorate the quality of decisions made due to long decision-making sessions. Most pharmacists are often busy and distracted, and this cannot be attributed to the work environment, but the profession as a whole. Burnout in the workplace can result in lack of attention, loss of enjoyment, and an absence of emotion or interest among pharmacists. Engaging in mindful practices, however, can be useful in reducing the levels of burnout and fatigue, and pharmacists should be encouraged to engage in it more often.
According to Dlugosz, one can change a situation by reacting to it differently, and this can be applied to pharmacy before the situation gets worse than it is presently (…). Mindfulness practices can help nurses be in the moment and forget about their stressful activities and improve their physical and mental health in the process. Mindfulness can be achieved through mindful-based interventions (MBIs) both in non-clinical and clinical settings. According to Balick (2019), burnout and stress can be mitigated by building resilience, which can be done by learning more about ourselves and being aware of the moment. Mindfulness can teach pharmacists to pause and make conscious choices, not focusing on wrong actions. Dlugosz (….) urges pharmacists to bring their attention back to what can presently when they notice they are getting worked up as a result of overworking. Most negativity and stress occur when people engage in fear-based thoughts concerning the future and past, hence making people react in habitual ways. Simple techniques such as taking a few deep breaths during extreme stress moments can be useful in bringing one’s attention back to the breathing process hence giving one a different experience of the problem. Consequently, pharmacy as a whole need to change as people should not suffer as they perform their duties. The change process, however, can take time and nurses need to engage in mindful practices to alleviate their burnout and stressful levels.
As much as overwhelming research and evidence point out the benefits and advantages of engaging in mindful practices, researchers should also consider the downsides of engaging in the practice. Research involving a 15-minute mindful induction found out that participants were more probable to form false memories compared to those who took part in mind-wandering (Dholakia, 2016). When people embrace acceptance and judgment-free awareness, they often impair their reality-monitoring accuracy and increase their proneness to false memories. Such fictitious realities can cause harm to individuals as they can end up carrying past histories into the future. Individuals also get to discard positive thoughts as they part with negative thoughts. Research suggests that some techniques used in mindful treatment can backfire, and better outcomes may not always be realized (………..). Mindful practices may not always be effective in all situations, as some people may abuse it by using the strategies to avoid critical thinking tasks.
Participants engaging in mindful practices often experience the side effects of the process. According to (……….) the side effects of mindful practices include depersonalization, and individuals often end up feeling detached from their bodies or mental processes. Participants can also experience psychosis as they lose contact with reality. Other side effects of mindful practices include anxiety feelings, insomnia, loss of appetite, and higher risks of seizures. Participants with conditions like PTSD should be careful when engaging in mindful practices since they are more vulnerable to experience adverse side effects.
Conclusion
Based on the arguments, the benefits and downsides of mindful activities can be seen, and pharmacists can weigh their decisions on whether to use mindful practices or not. The benefits of engaging in mindful practices are more inclined on its ability to reduce stress and burnout (Martin, 2017). The downsides, on the other hand, point out the side effects and negative behaviors encouraged by the practice. Pharmacy as a whole needs to make an effort to combat the issues by individuals pursuing the profession, and mindful practices might as well be the solution. Implementation of the process, however, should be done appropriately using best interventions to reduce the possible side effects of the process. For instance, the participants can