title: Promoting self-awareness and reflection through an experiential mind-body skills course for first year medical students.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  This research examines student evaluations of their experience and attitudes in an 11 week mind-body skills course for first year medical students.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The aim is to understand the impact of this course on students' self-awareness, self-reflection, and self-care as part of their medical education experience.
  
  
  METHODS
  This study uses a qualitative content analysis approach to data analysis. The data are 492 verbatim responses from 82 students to six open-ended questions about the students' experiences and attitudes after a mind-body skills course. These questions queried students' attitudes about mind-body medicine, complementary medicine, and their future as physicians using these approaches.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The data revealed five central themes in students' responses: connections, self discovery, stress relief, learning, and medical education.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Mind-body skills groups represent an experiential approach to teaching mind-body techniques that can enable students to achieve self-awareness and self-reflection in order to engage in self-care and to gain exposure to mind-body medicine while in medical school.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Georgetown University, Washington, DC 20057, USA. saunderp@georgetown.edu
authors.forename: Pamela A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Saunders
authors.forename: Rochelle E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Tractenberg
authors.forename: Ranjana
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Chaterji
authors.forename: Hakima
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Amri
authors.forename: Nancy
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Harazduk
authors.forename: James S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Gordon
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lumpkin
authors.forename: Aviad
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Haramati
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001364:Awareness; D000529:Complementary Therapies / Q000193:education; D004219:District of Columbia; D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D019222:Mind-Body Relations, Metaphysical; D018794:Problem-Based Learning / Q000379:methods*; D036301:Qualitative Research; D012647:Self-Assessment; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000517:prevention & control; D013337:Students, Medical