Exploring The effects Of An online asynchronous mindfulness meditation intervention with nursing students On Stress, mood, And Cognition: A descriptive study

• Published in: Nurse education today 2016-04, Vol.39, p.163-169
• Main Authors: Spadaro, Kathleen C., Hunker, Diane F.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Academic achievement; Accuracy; Adult; Affect; Anxiety; Anxiety-Depression; Attention; Cognition; Cognition & reasoning; Consciousness; distance nursing students; Education, Distance - methods; Education, Nursing, Baccalaureate; Graduate students; Humans; Intervention; Learning; Learning Management Systems; Management Systems; Meditation; Meditation - methods; Metacognition; Middle Aged; Mindfulness; mindfulness meditation; mood; Mood changes; Nurses; Nursing; Nursing education; Nursing Students; Stress; Stress management; Stress management training; Stress, Psychological; Students, Nursing - psychology; Undergraduate students; Usefulness; Young Adult
• ISSN: 0260-6917; 1532-2793
• DOI: 10.1016/j.nedt.2016.02.006

Nurses returning to school while working, raising families, and maintaining other roles, can experience stress, mood changes and cognition disturbance that negatively impact their academic success. To explore the effect of an online mindfulness meditation intervention with distance nursing students on stress, mood and cognition. A 24week descriptive study. An 8week online intervention was offered to all undergraduate and graduate nursing students, of three nursing programs of a middle-sized university in mid-Atlantic US. A total of 26 nursing students completed the study. An 8week online, asynchronous mindfulness intervention was provided through the learning management system with a 16week follow-up. Outcomes measures: Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), and Attention Network Test (ANT). Stress was significantly reduced (F(2,24)=4.163, p=.019). A decreasing trend for anxiety was noted with significant difference between time points (F(1,23)=6.889, p=.015) when practice frequency was weekly to daily. Cognition: ability to shift attention, attention selection, concentration, and accuracy improved. Findings from this study may illuminate the usefulness of a mindfulness based stress reduction program offered to distance nursing students. Further studies are needed to better demonstrate the effectiveness of the intervention. •Stress, mood, and cognition were explored with nurses returning to school.•Asynchronous online mindfulness intervention developed and provided using the university's learning management system.•Faculty awareness that students may experience changes in stress levels, mood and cognition that can impact academic success.•Mindfulness meditation can be one method to address stress, mood, and cognitive changes in distance nursing students.