Mindfulness in Medical School

Mindfulness is becoming recognized by leading Medical Schools as a beneficial practice for their students, residents, and faculty. Mindfulness is cultivated to promote physician self-care, self-awareness, and empathy with the ultimate aim of mutually improving physician well-being and the quality of patient care. Programs also frequently discuss how to directly integrate mindfulness into clinical practice.

Boston-Henry Institute for Mind and Body Medicine with Harvard Medical School Department of Continuing Education: Center for Training in Mind/Body Medicine
Medical students, post-doctoral fellows, and healthcare professionals are offered courses on the integration of mind/body medicine, such as meditation, into clinical work.

Brown University Alpert Medical School: Scholarly Concentration in Contemplative Studies
In this four-year program for medical students (taken during degree as one of the possible Scholarly Concentrations), students develop an experiential and scientific understanding of contemplative practice and its uses in a clinical context.

Duke University Medical School: Duke Integrative Medicine
Courses are offered in which students learn the science behind mind-body therapies and develop stress management and self-care skills for themselves and their patients, such as through Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR).

Georgetown University School of Medicine: Mind Body Medicine Program
Integrated into the medical school curriculum, this course teaches a theoretical and experiential understanding of mind-body approaches to health care, including mindfulness.

McGill Faculty of Medicine: Programs in Integrated Whole Person Care
A “Mindfulness-Based Medical Practice for Medical Students” program is offered through Whole Person Care. It is modeled after the MBSR program, with an added emphasis on clinical practice.

University of Massachusetts Medical School’s Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society: Contemplative Mind in Medicine for UMMS Students
This MBSR course for first and second year medical students provides the foundation for future development of mindfulness personally and within the patient-physician relationship.

University of Pennsylvania: Mindfulness Courses for Medical Students
For medical and nursing students, a mind-body medicine course explores scientific and experiential understandings of meditation as well as its uses in a clinical setting.

University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry: Mindful Practice Curriculum
Students and residents participate in parallel curricula integrated throughout their years of study (one introductory module and four department-specific modules). Faculty also receive mindfulness training.