The International Journal of Whole Person Care

Virtual Reality: An Exploration of Student and Teacher Perceptions of a Virtually Delivered Mindfulness Curriculum in Undergraduate Medical Education

2024-09-18T14:46:53-04:00

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic caused a mandatory shift to virtual delivery of content in medical education. This study explored the benefits and limitations of a virtually delivered mindfulness curriculum as perceived by students and teachers. Our goal was to identify key concepts to consider for improving or implementing such a curriculum at the undergraduate medical education level.

Methods: This was a mixed methods research study. An online questionnaire was administered and focus group interviews were conducted. Conventional content analysis was used to code and derive themes from interview transcripts.

Results: The perceptions of 35 first- and second-year medical students and five mindfulness teachers were collected. A qualitative thematic analysis of interview transcripts identified positive features of virtual delivery which included ‘convenience’, ‘accessibility’, and ‘a less intimidating environment’. Negative features included ‘decreased connection and sense of community’, ‘less accountability’, ‘susceptibility to distractions’, and ‘screen fatigue’. Many students proposed a hybrid of in-person and virtual teaching as an ideal curriculum.

Conclusion: Future efforts for developing or refining mindfulness curricula for medical trainees may benefit from further investigating the unique advantages of both virtual and in-person delivery methods and how they may uniquely support wellbeing and professional satisfaction.

The Doctor as Person Fellowship Program: A Path for Purpose in Healthcare

2025-08-28T16:41:58-04:00

Contributions from a McGill Whole Person Care Training Initiative

The Physician as a Healer: Relief of Suffering

2025-08-28T16:46:46-04:00

Reflections from the Doctor as Person Fellowship Program

Finding Meaning in Suffering

2025-08-28T16:49:45-04:00

Reflections from the Doctor as Person Fellowship Program

Rooted in my Why: A Story of Nursing, Identity, and Integrity

2025-06-20T11:28:40-04:00

Drop of Indigo Dye

2025-06-05T14:23:50-04:00

I share my story of how an unexpected diagnosis changed my lens in caring for my patients. This story shines a light on how narrative medicine tools employed by various healthcare professionals touch me as a patient, in turn, realizing how it trickled down to strengthen relationships with my patients as their comprehensive family physician. Narrative medicine permitted me to process my health journey and re-assess my values to gain new insights on how I derive meaning and purpose.

For Layla: Reclaiming Purpose Through Service, Humility, and Empathy in Healthcare

2025-06-30T17:32:28-04:00

Machine Translation Use as a Purposeful Activity

2025-04-13T17:31:56-04:00

Purpose in the Broken: A Journey from Disillusion to Direction

2025-06-30T14:14:48-04:00

This commentary explores the evolution of the sense of purpose for a mental health professional navigating the tensions between personal vocation and systemic realities. With a tale of lived experience, the author dives into the dissonance she once felt between the values that drew her into the helping field and the institutional conditions that often undermine them. With empathy for the individual workers, the piece critically examines how systems shape care and credibility, while affirming the importance of compassion, creativity and collective purpose. Grounded in a commitment to remain present in the field, the essay calls for a more trauma-informed, sustainable practice of the helping professions - one that values both the providers and the people they serve.

In The Stillness

2025-06-30T14:23:00-04:00

In this reflective narrative, a recent nursing graduate explores her evolving sense of purpose through key moments in her clinical experience. From early uncertainty to a powerful experience in the emergency department, the author discovers that purpose in healthcare is not found in a single revelation, but in the stillness of presence, compassion, and being trusted during life’s most sacred moments. “In the Stillness” offers a meditation on how showing up fully, during birth, death, and everything in between, can become the deepest expression of purpose in care.

Embracing Purpose

2025-07-07T13:45:16-04:00

The Winds that Carry Us

2025-06-20T17:44:52-04:00

Wholeness as Purpose

2025-08-28T16:36:15-04:00