Preventing Burnout in Health-Care Education and Practice: Mindfulness and Self-Care

Michael Atkinson, Co-Chair of MiME and Senior Lecturer, University of Sunderland

As well as Co-Chair of ASME’s Mindfulness in Medical Education Special Interest Group (MiME), Michael is a full-time Senior Lecturer in Medical Education at the University of Sunderland, where he is involved in both the Masters in Medical Education and the MBChB Undergraduate medical degree. He was previously a Lecturer in Medical Education, Associate Lecturer in Psychology, and Mindfulness Teacher at Newcastle University.

With over 20 years of experience as a mindfulness practitioner he has taught mindfulness in a range of public and private contexts including local and national conferences and events, Higher Education institutions, large corporations, and health-care settings. As Co-Director of The Centre for Mindfulness and Wellbeing he leads courses such as the 8-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) programme, as well as workshops, retreats, and one-to-one sessions for the public. He has collaborated with a range of mental health and mindfulness practitioners such as Dr Zoe Williams (resident GP on ITV’s Good Morning Britain) and features regularly on Radio Tyneside’s morning programme with ‘Morning Mindfulness’.

Michael’s research is primarily mindfulness focused, linking it to well-being, resilience, and clinical decision-making, but he has also published on teacher education, medical curriculum evaluation, and teaching within a medical context. He has peer reviewed articles for the journal, Mindfulness, as well as grant applications for the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).   He has a first degree in Philosophy, a PGCE in Post Compulsory Education and Training, a Masters in Education, and is as a Senior Fellow with Advance-HE. He lives in Durham in the North-East of England with his family.