Boch C, Cappaert T, Shotwell MP, Schmelzer C. Investigating the Impact of Mindfulness Meditation on Stress Reduction and Self-Compassion of Nursing Health Care Professionals in a Small Community Hospital in the Midwest: A Pilot Study. Holist Nurs Pract. 2024 Jan-Feb 01;38(1):14-23. doi: 10.1097/HNP.0000000000000623. PMID: 37966986. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37966986/
In January 2022, the ANA launched the Two-Year COVID-19 Impact Assessment Survey that included approximately 12 700 nurses, which documented the impact of the pandemic on nursing stress, burnout, and attrition. Although the pandemic has passed it is widely recognized that the impact of occupational stress remains a major challenge for Nursing and other health providers.
Boch C, Cappaert T, Shotwell MP, Schmelzer C. Investigating the Impact of Mindfulness Meditation on Stress Reduction and Self-Compassion of Nursing Health Care Professionals in a Small Community Hospital in the Midwest: A Pilot Study. Holist Nurs Pract. 2024 Jan-Feb 01;38(1):14-23. doi: 10.1097/HNP.0000000000000623. PMID: 37966986.
In January 2022, the ANA launched the Two-Year COVID-19 Impact Assessment Survey that included approximately 12 700 nurses, which documented the impact of the pandemic on nursing stress, burnout, and attrition. Although the pandemic has passed it is widely recognized that the impact of occupational stress remains a major challenge for Nursing and other health providers.
The purpose of this study was to investigate how mindfulness meditation may reduce stress among professional nurses in hospital practice. The authors stated that “… nurse leaders who participated in mindfulness activities reported significant reduction in stress, anxiety, and mood [disturbance].” “Research over the last 2 decades has demonstrated that mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) programs have been instrumental in reducing stress and improving the quality of life for the nursing population”. Mindfulness meditation is also w a well established way to develop “self-compassion” (a sense of compassion toward oneself). Self-compassion improves tolerance because the individual is less self-critical.
The experimental condition was” a 4-week automated mindfulness program for nurses” to
test the impact of mindfulness meditation on perceived stress and self-compassion.
This intervention asked participants to listen to a brief 10-minute mindfulness meditation
each day as convenient for their schedule using a video downloaded from commercially available the Calm App. This study used an intervention group and a waitlist control group. Assessments were
taken at baseline and again 4 weeks post-intervention for both groups using the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) and the Self-Compassion Scale (SC). The raw data for indicated “minimal clinically significant differences between the 2 groups for most constructs …” but “only 2 constructs were found to be statistically significantly different”.
The 2 constructs were: Perceived Stress Scale Question #4 “felt confident to handle problems” and SC Question #3 “I take a balanced view of situations.”
This study supports the viability of very brief mindfulness meditation interventions to reduce work-related stress and improve self-compassion among professional nurses. Further it provides a model for program implementation. Recordings of guided mindfulness meditations are widely available, and if used in conjunction with additional supports such as live in person or live online instruction and the support of leadership and peers might provide a key element for fostering mindfulness in a nursing service.
