Table 1 Population, intervention, comparison groups, and outcomes (PICO) table

Sarah Moore, Rita Barbou, Hanh Ngo, Craig Sinclair, Richard Chambers, Kirsten Auret, Craig Hassed & Denese Playford (2020)

Medical students at a Rural Clinical School

N=47

Intervention Type: Single-arm prospective mixed method cohort study

Intervention: MTP (Online mindfulness training programme)

Short mini-lectures

Guided meditations

Duration: 8 weeks

Follow Up: 4 months

Measurement tools:

Perceived Stress Scale (PSS)

Self Compassion Scale (SCS)

Compassion Scale (CS)

Completed at baseline, completion of intervention, 4 months follow up

No control group

Many participants reported mindfulness:

● Increased awareness of nature of mind

● Provided opportunities to acknowledge thoughts and emotions in a judgmental manner allowing participants to respond in more controlled way

● Helpful in developing self-compassion and compassion for others

● Allowed participants to become more present, thereby reducing stress

● Some reported practising mindfulness helped to improve productivity and performance

No immediate post-training impact on stress levels

Impact seen more clearly at 4 month follow up, just before final exams

Medical students experience stress during training

As stress continues into junior doctor years, this may lead to burnout, anxiety, depression, suicidal thinking, alcohol abuse

Danilewitz M., Koszycki D., Maclean H., Sanchez-Campos M., Gonsalves C., Archibald D., and Bradwejn J. (2018)

Medical students

N= 52

Intervention Type: Prospective pilot cohort design

Intervention: MIND-MED

Comprised of 7 online modules that explain the foundations of mindfulness practice and address themes linked to medical student experiences

Each module was sequential and contained video content and meditation practice

Each module lasted 25-35 minutes

Duration: 7 weeks to 4 months

Based on participant rate of progression

Measurement Tools:

Jefferson Empathy Scale-Medical Students version

Self-Compassion Scale-Short Form

Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire

No control group

Feasibility was easily achieved

Module completion was high

● 86.5% finished at least 1 module

● 22.2% finished 1-3 modules

● 16.7% finished 4-6 modules

● 66.7% finished all 7 modules

Regular daily practice of meditation techniques was low

Estimated Marginal Mean for Pre- and Post-Intervention Self-Report Measures (95% Confidence Intervals

● Improvement from baseline for burnout was not statistically significant

● Increase in empathy levels but not significant

● Absence of statistically significant changes in empathy may be rooted to JES-S scale which mainly measures attitude towards empathy

● Statistically significant increase for self-compassion

○ Pre-intervention: 35.0+-1.2

○ Post-intervention: 39.3+-1.3

● Statistically significant increase for “observe” and “describe” facets of mindfulness

● Observe:

○ Pre-intervention: 12.9+-0.5

○ Post-intervention: 15.1+-0.5

● Describe:

○ Pre-intervention: 16.7+-0.5

○ Post-intervention: 18.4+-0.6

The module that the highest percentage of participants (45.1%) found to be the most relevant

Most number of participants: Module 5 (Self Acceptance: Dealing with Perfectionism Relating to Our Judging Mind)

Most number of participants (53.6%) found support materials for Module 7 (Moving Beyond the Program) to be the most useful

No significant effect on burnout levels