Background
Healthcare providers often experience emotional strain following patient death, yet structured coping mechanisms remain limited. Brief interventions like The Pause show promise. We evaluated the Three-Breath technique—a short guided meditation to honor the deceased and support clinician resilience—for its potential use in emergency medicine.
Methods
Emergency physicians completed a mixed-methods survey assessing experiences with patient death. The survey included multiple-choice, Likert-scale, and free-text items, plus a 3-minute video introducing the Three-Breath technique. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Spearman’s correlation; qualitative responses underwent thematic analysis.
Results
Of 79 physicians invited, 49 responded (62%; 39% attendings, 61% residents). Attendings reported greater comfort processing death (mean = 4.45) than residents (mean = 3.75; r = 0.29, p = 0.04). Comfort correlated moderately with ease returning to work (r = 0.55, p = 0.00004) and weakly with Three-Breath use (r = 0.117, p = 0.42). Overall, 59% reported using either the Pause or Three-Breath, and 94% felt comfortable coping with patient death. Thematic analysis emphasized team debriefs, moments of silence, and personal strategies (e.g., exercise, meditation), while noting barriers like impersonal wellness programs and administrative burdens.
Conclusion
Comfort with patient death appears to increase with experience. While brief techniques like the Three-Breath method are promising, adoption varies. Findings highlight the value of flexible, personalized coping tools.
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Return to Table of Contents: 2025 Emergency Medicine Medical Student and Resident Research Symposium
Guided Meditation to Initiate Emotional Processing of Patient Deaths by Sarah Petelinsek, Genae Christensen, Alex Franke, MD, Allison Beaulieu, MD, MAEd, Megan Fix, MD, Gab Langmann, MD, MS, Christine Raps & Patrick G. Hughes