Does mindfulness practice lead to better academic performance?
The benefits of mindfulness are frequently hailed to help students manage competing work and life commitments in a healthy, balanced way that supports best learning. Medical students are no different, and many are encouraged to incorporate mindfulness into their busy lives.
However, given the dominant culture of evidence-based practice that defines modern medicine, a final year Monash medical student wondered if there was any evidence to support the use of mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) among her peer group.
Roshini Lekamge undertook her six-week Scholarly Intensive Placement with our Medical Education Research and Quality (MERQ) team, who supervised her first foray into the world of medical research – a systematic review of the topic, recently published in BMJ Evidence Based Medicine.
Roshini says, “The ability to transfer formal mindfulness training skills to daily life experiences would be incredibly valuable. There’s already good evidence that indicates mindfulness interventions can ease symptoms of mental health issues and alleviate physical pain. But I knew anecdotally that mindfulness practice was encouraged for students in a huge number of medical programs, and I wondered if doing so actually conferred any specific academic improvements.”
Led by supervisors Professor Dragan Ilic, Associate Professor Danijela Gasevic and Dr Nazmul Karim, she quickly uncovered a review conducted in 2017, which found that 79 per cent of American medical education programs did indeed incorporate mindfulness activities.
“There is also a significant body of research that shows medical students experience professional burnout, depression and anxiety at high rates compared to many other University students. By reducing stress, some mindfulness advocates suggest academic performance could be improved. The attraction of this theory is obvious - but to be good practitioners of evidence-based medicine, we should seek to demonstrate its efficacy.”
Roshini searched standard medical databases for randomised controlled trials that examined the academic performance effects of MBIs among medicine, nursing and allied health. Of 267 initial hits from her search terms, just two studies were eligible for inclusion, with a cumulative total of 100 participants.
“With such scant evidence, it’s challenging to draw many conclusions other than more research is needed. It certainly doesn’t negate any positive impacts that mindfulness may indeed be having on academic performance, it’s just we’ve found a big gap in the literature here.”
“The ability to roll out a program of MBIs when you are confident of the benefits it will confer would be wonderful. Stress reduction during the study period could yield more competent healthcare professionals entering the workforce. It may also act in a feedback loop, as academic performance is often cited as a major stressor in this group. By supporting them in their academic abilities, it could further reduce personal stress.”
Main supervisor and Head of MERQ Professor Dragan Ilic says, “I was really impressed with the volume of papers Roshini assessed, and the work she did writing this up in such a short timeframe. My team are always looking for ways to improve educational techniques and optimize the learning experience for our students, and this sort of project is incredibly helpful.”
“I agree with Roshini – this is an area filled with huge potential, and it’ll be exciting to see how it develops over the coming years, as more evidence is found to better support these initiatives.”
Following her positive experience with the SIP program in 2019, Roshini plans to continue her venture into research and commence a PhD with the SPHPM next year. She’s hoping to explore what a mental health curriculum could look like in Australian schools, under the supervision of Professor Dragan Ilic.
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