ORIGINAL QUESTION:
To implement a doable dissertation study, the doctoral learner must transition from a topic of interest to identifying gap in the extant research. That is, the dissertation problem must emerge as a gap from prior research. Discuss the gap you have identified for your dissertation study and the research that outlines the gap for your study. How is your dissertation topic justified by prior research? Explain.

WRITE A RESPONSE TO THE FOLLOWING POST:

The topic of my study is how the effectiveness of practicing yoga with meditation, self-compassion, and mindfulness can help alleviate medical students in distress during medical training. Research has shown how emotionally taxing medical school is and how a students education experience can cause depression, anxiety, stress, burnout, somatic distress, thoughts of dropping out and suicide, decrease in empathy, poor academic performance, feelings of loneliness, imposter syndrome, financial burdens and loan debt (Hill, Goicochea, & Merlo, 2018). There were numerous articles on how the experiences in which medical students commonly experience which were stress, student burnout syndrome, anxiety, and depression; as well as how incorporating the practice of yoga and meditation helps individuals with different types of stressful careers, education careers, and personal lives manage their stress levels and anxiety and combat depression and burnout syndrome. Prior research has shown that mindfulness-based interventions have been extensively researched and reviewed, and have often been found to decrease both stress and worry, as well as to increase awareness and acceptance across a wide range of populations and settings (Baer, 2003; Bamber & Schneider, 2016; Gawrysiak et al., 2015; Goyal et al., 2014; Miller, Fletcher, & Kabat-Zinn, 1995) (as cited in Hylander, Johansson, Daukantait, & Ruggeri, 2017). My topic led to the gap of whether the practice of yoga with meditation, self-compassion, and mindfulness can help medical students alleviate or combat distress during their four years of medical school. My research topic is justified by prior research in how the practices of taking time for yourself and decluttering your mind can in fact have many positive benefits when living a stressful life. Increased levels of mindfulness through yoga practice have previously been shown to be beneficial in stress reduction (Riley & Park, 2015) and practitioners can strengthen key features of mindfulness through continuous yoga practice (Gordon, 2013)(as cited in Hylander et al., 2017).

References:

Hill, M.R., Goicochea, S., & Merlo, L.J. (2018). In their own words: stressors factoring medical students in the millennial generation. Medical Education Online, 23(1)1. Doi: 10.1080/10872981.2018.1530558.

Hylander, F., Johansson, Daukantait, M., & Ruggeri, K. (2017). Yin yoga and mindfulness: afive-week randomized controlled study evaluating the effects of the yomi program on stress and worry. Anxiety, Stress & Coping: An International Journal, 30(4), p.365-378. Doi: 10.1080/10615806.2017.1301189.