Self-Compassion Training for Healthcare Communities (SCHC)

Class Description

Have you ever wondered if there was a skill you could use to help you sustain real compassionate care for patients in the face of competing demands like technology and documentation, time pressure, patient trauma and fatigue? 

Burgeoning research is showing that self-compassion skills can be of particular benefit to health care professionals, allowing them to experience greater satisfaction in their caregiving roles, less stress, and more emotional resilience.  The good news is that self-compassion skills are trainable and build your capacity to handle stressful challenges.

Self-Compassion Training for Healthcare Communities (SCHC) is a 6-hr evidence-based healthcare adaptation of Mindful Self-Compassion, the empirically supported program of Dr. Kristin Neff at UT Austin and Dr. Chris Germer at Harvard Medical School. This training aims to improve wellbeing and personal resilience in healthcare professionals by teaching mindful self-compassion skills to deal with distressing emotional situations as they occur at work and at home.  

In research published in the Journal of Clinical Psychology, Neff.Knox.2020, the SCHC program was found to significantly:

  • Decrease:  Depression, Stress, Secondary Traumatic stress, and Burnout
  • Increase:  Self-compassion, Mindfulness, Compassion for others, Job satisfaction in healthcare professionals

As opposed to other self-care techniques, self-compassion practices can be used on the spot while at work with patients and colleagues.  

As a participant of the program you can learn the following objectives:

  • Be able to describe the key components of self-compassion and mindfulness and how they can be integrated into your role as a healthcare professional.
  • Be able to explain the difference between empathy and compassion and utilize strategies to avoid emotional exhaustion.
  • Be able to practice techniques to increase self-compassion at work and everyday life.
  • Practice at least one skill from each session to care for yourself emotionally while caring for others who are experiencing difficulty.

The Self-Compassion Training for Healthcare Communities program meets for six 1-hour sessions.

 A moment of self-compassion can change your entire day. A string of such moments can change the course of your life. Chris Germer, PhD

Upcoming SCHC Programs

These programs are for the general healthcare public and are not Teacher Training programs.
All sessions are delivered live-online via Zoom meeting for an interactive learning experience. The SCHC program week by week:
Topic 1:  What is Self-Compassion? Definition and Science of Self-Compassion
  • Introduction:  What is Self-Compassion?  Misgivings and research about Self-Compassion.
Topic 2:  Practicing Self-Compassion: Physiology and Practice of Self-Compassion with Mindfulness
  • The physiology of self-compassion.  Self-compassion break.  Backdraft.  Moments of mindfulness.
Topic 3:  Discovering your Compassionate Voice: Motivating Ourselves with Fierce Self-Compassion
  • Self-criticism and safety.  Motivating ourselves with compassion.
Topic 4:  Self-Compassion and Resilience
  • Strategies for Meeting Difficult Emotions
Topic 5:  Burnout: Self-Compassion for Caregiver Fatigue
  • Stress and Burnout.  Compassion with Equanimity.
Topic 6:  Making it Count: Reconnecting to Core Values
  • Core Values for Healthcare Professionals. Setting an intention.  Practice going forward.
We look forward to having you join this movement to bring Mindful Self-Compassion into healthcare!

Fees

Course Fees:
  • The General Registration Fee for this program is $325.
Continuing Education Credits:
  • Continuing Education Credits are available for Nurses, Psychologists and MFTs, LPCCs, LEPs, LCSWs for $30.
  • CME Credits are available for physicians for $50.

Continuing Education

CME Credit: This session is approved for a total of 6 AAFP Prescribed credits. AAFP Prescribed credit is accepted by the American Medical Association as equivalent to AMA PRA Category 1 credit(s)™ toward the AMA Physician’s Recognition Award. When applying for the AMA PRA, Prescribed credit earned must be reported as Prescribed, not as Category 1.

Continuing Education Credit is available for  Nurses, Psychologists and MFTs, LPCCs, LEPs, LCSWs. You must attend all sessions live and complete a post course evaluation.


  • Nurses: UC San Diego Center for Mindfulness is  approved by the California Board of Registered Nursing, Provider Number  CEP16351, for 7.0 CE credit.
  • Psychologists: Continuing Education Credit for this  program is provided by UC San Diego Center for Mindfulness. The UC San  Diego Center for Mindfulness is approved by the American Psychological  Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. The UC  San Diego Center for Mindfulness maintains responsibility for this  program and its content. This course offers 6.0 CE credit.
  • California licensed MFTs, LPCCs, LEPs, LCSWs:  Continuing Education Credit for this program is provided by UC San Diego  Center for Mindfulness. The UC San Diego Center for Mindfulness is  approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing  education for psychologists. 6.0 CE credit may be applied to your  license renewal through the California Board of Behavioral Sciences. For  those licensed outside California, please check with your local  licensing board to determine if CE credit is accepted
  • IMPORTANT NOTE: You must attend all classes live to receive CEs credits. 

Self-Compassion for Healthcare Communities (SCHC) Research

Research conducted in 2019 on 47 healthcare professionals suggests program attendance leads to significant increases in self-compassion, mindfulness, compassion to others and compassion satisfaction and decreases in stress, depression, and symptoms of burnout.

To date, 17 groups of 294 professionals have participated in Self-Compassion Training for Health Care Communities, including 146 research participants.

  • A hospital institutional review board (IRB) has approved a quantitative study on the presentation of two different formats of the curriculum: a 1-day, 6-hour workshop and a course offered once a month for six months.
  • Currently, a qualitative study on healthcare professionals’ experiences of attending the training is underway and results are expected in May 2020. The results of three quantitative studies conducted from 2016 to 2019 are currently under peer review.
  • The curriculum was also offered to 25 parents of children with chronic illness, and a qualitative investigation of their experience is expected to be completed by May 2020.

Assessing the Need for Self-Compassion Training in Healthcare Communities

Burnout, including secondary traumatic stress and emotional exhaustion, is prevalent among health care professionals and is a factor contributing to turnover (Cocker & Joss, 2016; West, Dyrbye, & Shanafelt, 2018). “Chronic stress associated with emotionally intense work demands for which resources are inadequate can result in burnout,” write West, Dyrbye, & Shanafelt (2018). The purpose of the 6-week Self-Compassion Training for Healthcare Communities is to teach healthcare workers on the job skills to meet the emotional demands of their work. Mindfulness and self-compassion practices for healthcare are intended to lower the chance that professionals will end their shifts emotionally depleted and increase their likelihood of feeling accomplished and satisfied in their caregiving roles.

Two studies conducted on Dell Children’s Medical Center staff who attended the 6-week training showed participants significantly increased in self-compassion, mindfulness, compassion to others, compassion satisfaction, and feelings of personal accomplishment, and significantly decreased in levels of stress, anxiety, depression and measures of burnout (emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and secondary traumatic stress). Other peer-reviewed literature has found self-compassion training to reduce symptoms of burnout and increase self-compassion, mindfulness, and compassion satisfaction (Delaney, M.C., 2018; Eriksson et al., 2018).  

References

Cocker, F., & Joss, N. (2016). Compassion fatigue among healthcare, emergency and community service workers: A systematic review. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 13(6), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph13060618

Delaney, M. C. (2018). Caring for the caregivers: Evaluation of the effect of an eight-week pilot mindful self-compassion (MSC) training program on nurses’ compassion fatigue and resilience. PLoS ONE, 13(11), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0207261

Eriksson, T., Germundsjö, L., Åström, E., & Rönnlund, M. (2018). Mindful self-compassion training reduces stress and burnout symptoms among practicing psychologists: A randomized controlled trial of a brief web-based intervention. Frontiers in Psychology, 9(NOV), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02340

West, C. P., Dyrbye, L. N., & Shanafelt, T. D. (2018). Physician burnout: contributors, consequences and solutions. Journal of Internal Medicine, 283(6), 516–529. https://doi.org/10.1111/joim.12752

Upcoming Self-Compassion Training for Healthcare Communities (SCHC) Sessions

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“I learned practical skills that I use every dat at the bedside and that I share with my residents.  It gave me something to teach them and model for them besides simply telling them to take a day off when they were overwhelmed.”

~ Residency Program Director

 

“I never gave myself credit for how difficult my work is in healthcare and what it cost me personally.  This course validated my own suffering which prompted me to actually make changes in my life and work from which everyone benefits.”

~ Pediatric Oncologist

 

“As a hospitalist in a busy trauma center, this course changed my life and my perspective on my work.  I have a life now, see my family, and enjoy caring for patients again.”

~ Pediatric Hospitalist