Introduction: Practice problem
- Nurses form one of the most vulnerable professional groups in terms of stress impact.
- Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, nurses face additional challenges in terms of increasing working hours and overall stress caused by high patient mortality Nurses are under significant pressure, mindfulness meditation program significantly alleviates psychological stress
- A mindfulness meditation program will alleviate the stress and allow nurses to work more effectively
Clinical question
Among nurses who care for high morbidity/mortality patients during periods of pandemics would a mindfulness meditation program, compared to no intervention, reduce the level of work-related stress?
Integrative review
Searched academic research databases, including Research Gate, ScienceDirect, and Springer, as they contain thousands of scholarly articles on a wide range of topics
Each of the major notions was divided into key phrases to facilitate the search process
The materials were selected in accordance with limited basic criteria, listing the correlations between their objectives and results
A two-stage selection model was applied to determine relevant, recent, and accurate studies.
Qualitative studies formed the core of the integrative review, introducing a valuable theoretical framework
Quantitative research demonstrated the practical effect of theoretical findings in particular environments
Results
- Occupational stress in nursing:
- Nurses show one of the highest work-related stress rates in health care
- Stress in nursing is consistently high, but working during a pandemic has led to a further increase (Que et al., 2020).
- The Effectiveness of Mindfulness Techniques:
- Mindfulness techniques can applied in a variety of settings.
- Mindfulness meditation stabilizes the emotional well-being and improves the professional performance (Janssen et al., 2018)
- Similar results can be expected in nursing.
- Mindfulness Meditation Program in Nursing
- Mindfulness techniques help participants to overcome depression, anxiety, and insomnia (Rusch et al., 2019)
- Stress levels are decreased through mindfulness meditation programs
Implications
Nursing practice can benefit from such findings in terms of improving the work conditions of nurses;
Occupational stress can be considered an integral component of the nursing profession
Effective stress-management techniques can be proposed to nurses from earlier stages of education and training.
Their wider implementation will positively contribute to the quality of health services.
Conclusions
Mindfulness meditation practices in nursing demonstrate promising results in terms of alleviating the work-related stress services.
References
Janssen, M., Heerkens, Y., Kuijer, W., van der Heijden, B., & Engels, J. (2018). Effects of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction on employees’ mental health: A systematic review. PLoS ONE, 13(1).
Que, J., et al/. (2020). Psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on healthcare workers: A cross-sectional study in China. General Psychiatry, 33(3).
Rusch, H. L., et al. (2019). The effect of mindfulness meditation on sleep quality: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1445(1), 5–16.