Abstract
Nurses have to endure extreme workplace stress due to which many nurses suffer from poor mental health. Therefore, it is important to establish coping methods at an early stage. Mindfulness has proven to be effective in reducing stress responses as it helps in cultivating coping mechanisms to deal with negative thoughts. The purpose of this experiment is to develop coping mechanisms in nursing students before they became nurses. We organized a training program for 14 nursing students that incorporated mindfulness to manage stress, and verified the impact of this training through quantitative and qualitative data analysis. A total of five half-day training sessions were held and the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) score decreased significantly after the training (p<0.01), suggesting that this training may be helpful in improving mental health.
Regarding feedback on the training, while 62% of the students found it "very helpful", 38% considered it "somewhat helpful"; therefore, all participants deemed the training as useful. From the analysis of qualitative data, the following 6 categories were extracted as the lessons learned from the training.
1)Development of stress management skills from nursing student days,
2)Understanding one's personality and characteristics,
3)Improving communication skills,
4)Awareness of mind-wandering,
5)Observing the advantages of being aware of mind-wandering,
6)Noting the advantages of mindfulness meditation.
In conclusion, it was suggested that stress management training that incorporates mindfulness for nursing students has a short-term effect. It is necessary to verify the long-term effects of this training by following up on these students once they are professional nurses.
Author Information
Yukako Ando, Nagoya City University, Japan
Ryoko Ohara, Aichi Prefectural University, Japan
Kanako Yamauchi, Hiroshima International University, Japan
Toshio Kobayashi, Ishii Memorial Hospital, Japan
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