HKU Bulletin May 2012 (Vol. 13 No. 2)

Cover Story It also has promise for application with clinicians, as the Faculty of Medicine is finding. Last year the Faculty completed a two-year project to train frontline hospital staff in mindfulness. Now, it’s the turn of medical students. Mindfulness has been incorporated into the developing medical humanities curriculum, which aims to help students develop resilience and well-being so they can better deal with the stresses of their occupation. The curriculum also covers narrative medicine (focusing on doctors’ and patients’ stories) and consideration of such issues as culture, spirituality and healing, and death, dying and bereavement. Pilot projects held last summer and this winter taught students how to be present and mindful in the here and now, even when walking and eating, and to apply this awareness when dealing with patients. “The students say they find it very helpful to be listened to and they find they are understood when someone listens without interrupting them,” says Professor Chan. “Conversely, they find it difficult to listen to someone without interrupting them. But if you really pay attention when a patient is talking, you will understand more about their situation.” “It’s not just that students do the [meditation] exercise. They appreciate how it helps them, their relationships with their peers and family, the way they look at a patient who complains or talks to them, and how they can at least be there to listen to them.” That effect of mindfulness training supports the wider goal of the medical humanities curriculum to promote medicine as something deeper than just a good understanding of biomedicine. Dr Julie Chen Yun, Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Primary Care, says: “I think for a long time, it has been taken for granted that students would automatically absorb this other side or pick it up. To an extent they do through role modelling, but increasingly we’re finding that it’s something that can be nurtured. If you start early and put it in the curriculum in such a way that recognises it is important, i.e. by making it compulsory, then it sticks in their mind. They value it more if they see that we value it.” What if this training started even earlier – before students arrived at university, strung out in some cases by the demands of Hong Kong’s secondary school curriculum? That is a question of particular interest this year with the switch to a four-year university curriculum in Hong Kong and the admission of undergraduates who will be one year younger and less experienced than previous intakes. The Centre of Buddhist Studies sought answers through a project in which secondary school students received Buddhist education and interactive workshops to see whether this would improve their sense of coherence. The workshops included meditation, as well as games, outings and other activities. More than 600 students were divided into three groups. One group attended the interactive workshops and received lectures on Buddhism, one group received only the lectures, and one group received none of these. Before and after tests on students’ sense of coherence found a significant improvement for those in the first group who also performed well in their final grades in Buddhist studies. In fact, the ability to benefit from the workshops is correlated with the students’ knowledge of Buddhism, although students who only attended lectures in Buddhism but did not attend the series of workshops did not receive the same benefits. Interestingly, the students in the workshops said meditation was their favourite activity. “We tried to help students find the meaning of life by introducing them to the Buddhist understanding of life and at the same time teaching them how to manage life through Buddhist practices including obviously mindfulness practice,” Venerable Sik says. “You can’t just go to workshops and not study. Or study and not go to workshops, nothing happens. You need the theory and the practice.” The theory and practice intersect in pondering the deeper questions of human existence. Venerable Sik says they played a game in which students rolled dice to see who would get expensive candies and who would get cheap candies. They rolled again for a chance to take other people’s candies, and that was the end of the game. Students were then asked how they felt about the game, whether it reflected the state of the world, whether it was fair, how they might view the game if they had the nicer candies and so forth. “There are situations in life where you are just left with the bad side. How do you deal with it? Just by being angry? Or would you humbly submit? Or can you be happy with a little bit of candy? Obviously you can. There are many things to discuss. Who was in charge of the allotment – somebody else? You? God? Was it just simply luck or something else? This is comprehensibility. You need an environment where you can explore these questions,” he says, adding that the Centre is now seeking funding for a permanent venue to sustain the teachings and workshops for students. You also need an appreciation that these questions matter. The hope is that our scholars’ contributions to the application and understanding of mindfulness will provide evidence and inspire others to explore this ancient but still developing practice. M From left: Ms Venus Wong, Professor Chan Li-chong and Dr Julie Chen Yun We tried to help students find the meaning of life by introducing them to the Buddhist understanding of life and at the same time teaching them how to manage life through Buddhist practices including obviously mindfulness practice. It’s not just that students do the meditation exercise. They appreciate how it helps them. Professor Chan Li-chong Venerable Sik Hin Hung Medical Introspection Finding DeeperMeaning 15 May 2012 The University of Hong Kong Bulletin