As increasing demands are placed on healthcare workers in a broken healthcare system, compassion fatigue has become a significant issue. Studies have demonstrated anywhere from 43 to over 50% of US doctors and nurses experience emotional exhaustion, depression, and secondary traumatic stress. The effects of dissatisfaction among healthcare providers trickles down to patients, which can result in poor quality of care (Dyrbye et al,. 2017).
There is evidence that a yoga practice in a nursing population can improve parameters such as mindfulness, emotional exhaustion, and depersonalization that can result in burnout (Alexander et al., 2015). In an effort to implement an intervention for burnout, a pilot Medical Therapeutic Yoga class was taught to a group of pediatric nurses from Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC. Feedback from the intervention resulted in the scheduling of wellness/yoga days for nursing staff to take place throughout 2019. In addition, this has been the catalyst to start Yoga for Healthcare Professionals (YHC), which will include yoga and mindfulness-based classes for burnout prevention. This program is intended not only for nurses, but any healthcare professional, MD, PA, PT, MA, OT, etc…. Expected launch of the program is March, 2019. Using modalities from Medical Therapeutic Yoga will enable practitioners to engage in self-care with the goal of mitigating the effects of compassion fatigue. With the ultimate goal of keeping people in caring professions and providing high quality patient care while enjoying emotional health, themselves. The first phase of Yoga for healthcare providers was initiated with a wellness and yoga class on March 16, 2019 for a group of nurses from Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC at Yoga on Mars in Mars, PA. Further plans to bring the program to a hospital based setting have been initiated.
References

Alexander et al, (2015). Workplace Health Saf. Oct;63(10):462-70; quiz 471. doi: 10.1177/2165079915596102.

Dyrbye et al., (2017, July, 5). Burnout among health care professionals: A call to explore and address this under recognized threat to safe, high-quality care. National Academy of Medicine. Retrieve December 26, 2018, from https://nam.edu/burnout-among-health-care-professionals-a-call-to-explore-and-address-this-underrecognized-threat-to-safe-high-quality-care/

Reflecting upon the classes provided for healthcare providers using Medical Therapeutic Yoga modalities has overall been a positive experience. Feedback from participants, mostly registered nurses and physician assistants has indicated an observational need for classes on stress reduction. Offering free classes contributed to attendance. However, choosing a central location closer to the main Hospital may improve participation. Challenges include finding a central location and timing, as healthcare providers are often faced with shift work. In order to reach more healthcare providers, plans to collaborate with Chief Nursing Officers and set up MYT classes at Children’s Hospital are underway. Verbal feedback from participants indicated that this is a needed and desirable option for stress reduction and wellness.