By Anna Horner | News & Views
Integrating mental performance strategies into cardiovascular and pulmonary rehabilitation (CR/PR) programs may enhance care and improve patient outcomes while also benefitting staff in their personal and professional lives, says Vanessa Shannon, PhD. According to the certified mental performance consultant, mental performance is a relatively new concept in healthcare settings that incorporates self-awareness and self-regulation and focuses on developing the ability to minimize disruptions in order to maximize potential and optimize performance.
“Mental performance involves the concepts of consistency, concentration or focus, confidence, composure, and control," Dr. Shannon explains. “Much of my work is focused on helping individuals develop consistent, daily routines so that they can regulate their thoughts and emotions and be more mentally and emotionally flexible – strategies that CR/PR professionals can adopt for themselves or integrate into patient care.” Dr. Shannon stresses that mental performance differs from mental health and wellness, although there is some overlap. “There's this space between where both mental performance consultants and mental health professionals work that involves proactive mental wellness practices. The intersection between mental performance and mental health is in wellness skills and strategies, including coping skills and stress management strategies,” she says.
According to Dr. Shannon, research reveals that mental performance has a positive impact on athletes recovering from injuries, indicating that mental performance strategies could translate into positive outcomes in the healthcare setting. “The research suggests that the integration of mental performance strategies can play a critical role in the healing process, recovery speeds, pain management, and overall patient resilience,” she says. “If we're talking about cardiovascular and pulmonary rehabilitation, in particular, the patient's ability and willingness to have an effective mindset and be able to emotionally regulate would likely support their ability to recover or manage their acute illness or their chronic disease. That, in turn, should make it easier on the individuals who are part of their rehabilitation team. It should be a bidirectional relationship.” Dr. Shannon uses the “Live Well, Perform Well” strategy to explain this bidirectional relationship, noting, “If I'm a better practitioner because I am more mentally and emotionally flexible, then inherently I should have a better effect on the people that I work with, and vice versa.”
One strategy that is immediately implementable and can position CR/PR professionals and their patients for success is establishing effective daily routines. Dr. Shannon recommends beginning each day with gratitude. “Most of us wake up in the morning, and the first thing that comes to mind is everything we have to do that day or whatever we didn’t get done the previous day, and it really creates a behind-the-eight-ball kind of feeling that can make us anxious and stressed throughout the day, versus being able to start our day with gratitude and our cup half full. And there's a ton of research out there and a lot of anecdotal evidence from my career that supports the power of that, and how it can shift the way that we view the rest of our day and the narrative that we paint about it,” she asserts.
Dr. Shannon also suggests ending the day with the “Well, Better, How” framework. “I go through my day, and I ask myself, ‘What went well? What could have gone better, and how will I make it better tomorrow?’ I find with my clients that if we shift from lying our heads down on our pillows and thinking about what we still have left to accomplish to instead having a moment of reflection, where we're actually able to celebrate what went well and know that we're capable of managing whatever adversity or whatever challenge comes to us the next day, it can help people experience better rest and recovery during sleep.”
When it comes to adopting mental performance strategies, Dr. Shannon emphasizes that different techniques will resonate differently based on the individual. So rather than integrating a long list of strategies, she says it’s about finding what works best on a personal level. Dr. Shannon concludes, “What I really want to communicate to everyone is there's no specific way; it's about what works best for you and finding small strategies and tools that can support you and, in turn, help you better support your patients. And if your patients are having better outcomes and better experiences, then you inherently experience less stress as the practitioner.”
If you missed Dr. Shannon's AACVPR Live Webinar, Integrating Mental Performance in Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation, the recording is available — at no cost to members — from the AACVPR Learning Center.