title: Impact of a contemplative end-of-life training program: being with dying.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Health care professionals report a lack of skills in the psychosocial and spiritual aspects of caring for dying people and high levels of moral distress, grief, and burnout. To address these concerns, the "Being with Dying: Professional Training Program in Contemplative End-of-Life Care" (BWD) was created. The premise of BWD, which is based on the development of mindfulness and receptive attention through contemplative practice, is that cultivating stability of mind and emotions enables clinicians to respond to others and themselves with compassion. This article describes the impact of BWD on the participants.
  
  
  METHODS
  Ninety-five BWD participants completed an anonymous online survey; 40 completed a confidential open-ended telephone interview.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Four main themes-the power of presence, cultivating balanced compassion, recognizing grief, and the importance of self-care-emerged in the interviews and were supported in the survey data. The interviewees considered BWD's contemplative and reflective practices meaningful, useful, and valuable and reported that BWD provided skills, attitudes, behaviors, and tools to change how they worked with the dying and bereaved.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The quality of presence has the potential to transform the care of dying people and the caregivers themselves. Cultivating this quality within themselves and others allows clinicians to explore alternatives to exclusively intellectual, procedural, and task-oriented approaches when caring for dying people. BWD provides a rare opportunity to engage in practices and methods that cultivate the stability of mind and emotions that may facilitate compassionate care of dying patients, families, and caregivers.
authors: Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing, Baltimore, Maryland, USA. crushton@son.jhmi.edu
authors: Cynda Hylton
authors: CH
authors: Rushton
authors: Deborah E
authors: DE
authors: Sellers
authors: Karen S
authors: KS
authors: Heller
authors: Beverly
authors: B
authors: Spring
authors: Barbara M
authors: BM
authors: Dossey
authors: Joan
authors: J
authors: Halifax
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001293:Attitude to Death; D004645:Empathy; D005260:Female; D006117:Grief; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013727:Terminal Care / Q000379:methods* / Q000523:psychology*