Jena Buchan and Team applied for the ANZAHPE Grant in 2024. Learn about their project below:

Recent years have brought an increased interest and expansion of research related to compassion practices and training in healthcare. However, while growing research exists on integrating practice and training of compassion into health profession education programs, a gap remains in understanding compassion practices in educators delivering these programs. With the growing movement for these individuals to train the next generation of healthcare professionals in their own compassion practices and support them to reduce stress and burnout risk, it is essential to better support a ‘practice what you preach’ approach. However, first we must understand the current compassion landscape in health educators, to better guide future support and strategies. While the concept of ‘self-compassion’ has been an area of recent debate, the growing body of literature around this concept suggests it still worthy of further exploration. As such, our research team is working to increase understanding of self-compassion perception, practices, and lived experiences in health profession educator, alongside stress and work engagement. Through surveys and interviews, we seek to explore how a career in health professions education might impact the practice of self-compassion, including association with reported stress and work engagement, and identify what we can do to change the narrative.

If you’d like to discuss our work further, please reach out: Jena Buchan, Southern Cross University, jena.buchan@scu.edu.au