RST2: Yoga for Healthcare Professionals

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RST2: Yoga for Healthcare Professionals: Understanding Barriers, Facilitators, and Impact

Presenter bio: Tina Cartwright, CPsychol

Healthcare professionals experience high levels of stress and burnout, yet behavioral, organizational, and systemic barriers often constrain their engagement with workplace well-being initiatives. This session presents findings from two U.K. studies examining yoga as a workplace well-being intervention for healthcare staff.

The first study used a mixed-methods approach to identify key barriers and facilitators influencing the uptake and implementation of workplace yoga in healthcare settings, highlighting the roles of motivation, organizational context, time pressures, and perceptions of evidence. The second study investigated the effectiveness and acceptability of a 6-week online yoga program for healthcare workers. Findings from this randomized waitlist-controlled trial demonstrated significant reductions in perceived stress and improvements across secondary well-being outcomes including burnout and anxiety. Considered together, the studies provide insights into both the potential and the challenges of yoga-based interventions for healthcare professionals and highlight directions for future research, implementation, and program design.

Learning Objectives

1. Understand behavioral, organizational, and systemic factors that shape the uptake and implementation of yoga in healthcare settings.
2. Evaluate evidence on the effectiveness and acceptability of yoga programs for healthcare professionals.