By Brian Villa '22
As we approach the beginning of our mid-semester break, I have found myself feeling like a majority of my classmates: mentally and emotionally exhausted. But why? We look forward to fall break as a reprieve from the endless deluge of assignments, projects and exams. Some of us will visit friends, others will stay on campus, while many of us will travel back home. But why do we look forward to this break so much? As compassionate people, pre med or not, we all tend to get caught up in the chaos of college life. We constantly give to others, but tend to not give to ourselves. And while on break, with your mind not preoccupied by the stressors of college, I encourage you to incorporate a continuing mindset of ‘reset and recovery’ as a step towards living your most compassionate life.
In his book, How Doctors Care (2020), Dr. Dominic Vachon encourages a pathway for how to portray compassion in a clinical setting: The Clinician Compassion Mindset Process. He spends a whole chapter (Ch 4) breaking down this process and how someone can fall in and out of compassion throughout a patient visit. A decent portion of this pathway and the associated chapter discusses the techniques for recovering and resetting when a helping professional feels like they have left the compassionate mindset. These lapses in compassion can happen both during a patient visit (physician is preoccupied, emotionally challenged or overwhelmed) or while conducting rounds (letting another patient’s actions affect how you interact with others). When the compassion mindset is lost, it becomes very easy to become detached, conflicted or hostile toward a patient or coworker.
Hope is not lost though because through ‘compassion reset and recovery’ doctors, nurses, helping professionals, or any of us can jump back into the compassionate mindset. During a patient interaction when the compassion mindset is lost, ‘reset and recovery’ is used to snap back into wanting to help the patient and be present with them in that moment. The other way to reset and recover is right after leaving the patient’s room. This second ‘reset and recovery’ is key so that the frustration/memory/anxiety of a previous patient’s interaction does not affect future interactions with patients or coworkers.
Even though ‘reset and recovery’ is a good tool for doctors and nurses, I think this idea of resetting and recovering to get back into the correct frame of mind can be hugely beneficial for us students. We often find ourselves doing small resets and recoveries throughout the semester (after an exam or during a tough week). These small mental acts of regrouping and moving on are essential for any undergraduate student, but we can still get burnt out after a long semester or year. The hard reset that medical professionals use in their ‘break’ between patient visits is something that helps them maintain long term composure, stamina, and compassion during rounds. Why don't we students do the same thing during our ‘break’ during the semester? For us, the goal of resetting and recovering involves not letting any event that happened in the past affect our mentality and effort for the rest of the semester. Let us celebrate the accomplishments we have achieved so far and mindfully be aware of the tough moments and realize that they do not define who we are. The conscious effort to mindfully reset and recover over break will help us maintain our long term composure and stamina over the semester.
Wherever this break may bring you, I hope that you travel safely and enjoy this well deserved reprieve. Whether you are helping with an Appalachia Seminar, doing research here on campus, catching up with your family and friends, or on a sunny beach somewhere, I challenge you to mentally and emotionally reset this break. In doing so, I believe we all can start the second half of this semester refreshed and recovered with a newfound tenacity to take on whatever comes our way. I hope you all have an excellent week.
Source on the Compassion Mindset Process: Vachon, D. O. (2020). How Doctors Care (1st ed.). Chapter 4: The Clinician Compassion Mindset Process. San Diego, CA: Cognella Academic Publishing.
As we approach the beginning of our mid-semester break, I have found myself feeling like a majority of my classmates: mentally and emotionally exhausted. But why? We look forward to fall break as a reprieve from the endless deluge of assignments, projects and exams. Some of us will visit friends, others will stay on campus, while many of us will travel back home. But why do we look forward to this break so much? As compassionate people, pre med or not, we all tend to get caught up in the chaos of college life. We constantly give to others, but tend to not give to ourselves. And while on break, with your mind not preoccupied by the stressors of college, I encourage you to incorporate a continuing mindset of ‘reset and recovery’ as a step towards living your most compassionate life.
In his book, How Doctors Care (2020), Dr. Dominic Vachon encourages a pathway for how to portray compassion in a clinical setting: The Clinician Compassion Mindset Process. He spends a whole chapter (Ch 4) breaking down this process and how someone can fall in and out of compassion throughout a patient visit. A decent portion of this pathway and the associated chapter discusses the techniques for recovering and resetting when a helping professional feels like they have left the compassionate mindset. These lapses in compassion can happen both during a patient visit (physician is preoccupied, emotionally challenged or overwhelmed) or while conducting rounds (letting another patient’s actions affect how you interact with others). When the compassion mindset is lost, it becomes very easy to become detached, conflicted or hostile toward a patient or coworker.
Hope is not lost though because through ‘compassion reset and recovery’ doctors, nurses, helping professionals, or any of us can jump back into the compassionate mindset. During a patient interaction when the compassion mindset is lost, ‘reset and recovery’ is used to snap back into wanting to help the patient and be present with them in that moment. The other way to reset and recover is right after leaving the patient’s room. This second ‘reset and recovery’ is key so that the frustration/memory/anxiety of a previous patient’s interaction does not affect future interactions with patients or coworkers.
Even though ‘reset and recovery’ is a good tool for doctors and nurses, I think this idea of resetting and recovering to get back into the correct frame of mind can be hugely beneficial for us students. We often find ourselves doing small resets and recoveries throughout the semester (after an exam or during a tough week). These small mental acts of regrouping and moving on are essential for any undergraduate student, but we can still get burnt out after a long semester or year. The hard reset that medical professionals use in their ‘break’ between patient visits is something that helps them maintain long term composure, stamina, and compassion during rounds. Why don't we students do the same thing during our ‘break’ during the semester? For us, the goal of resetting and recovering involves not letting any event that happened in the past affect our mentality and effort for the rest of the semester. Let us celebrate the accomplishments we have achieved so far and mindfully be aware of the tough moments and realize that they do not define who we are. The conscious effort to mindfully reset and recover over break will help us maintain our long term composure and stamina over the semester.
Wherever this break may bring you, I hope that you travel safely and enjoy this well deserved reprieve. Whether you are helping with an Appalachia Seminar, doing research here on campus, catching up with your family and friends, or on a sunny beach somewhere, I challenge you to mentally and emotionally reset this break. In doing so, I believe we all can start the second half of this semester refreshed and recovered with a newfound tenacity to take on whatever comes our way. I hope you all have an excellent week.
Source on the Compassion Mindset Process: Vachon, D. O. (2020). How Doctors Care (1st ed.). Chapter 4: The Clinician Compassion Mindset Process. San Diego, CA: Cognella Academic Publishing.