Clinical articleBrief reportEvaluation of a Biofeedback-Assisted Meditation Program as a Stress Management Tool for Hospital Nurses: A Pilot Study
Introduction
Stress is ubiquitous. Chronic stress in particular may have deleterious health effects such as increased risk of sudden death,1, 2 myocardial ischemia, myocardial infarction risk, and worse prognosis after myocardial infarction,3 impaired quality of life,4 increased blood pressure and blood viscosity, and decreased insulin sensitivity.5
Nurses experience significant stress in the hospital setting.6, 7, 8 Existing literature9, 10, 11 suggests that meditation is an effective therapy for stress management. This pilot study was conducted to collect preliminary data regarding the effectiveness of a commercial, biofeedback-assisted meditation program as a stress management tool for hospital nurses.
Section snippets
Participants
This study was approved by the Mayo Clinic Institutional Review Board and registered as NCT01011790 at ClinicalTrials.gov. We conducted a four-week, early phase trial from June 11, 2008, through July 30, 2008. Participants were registered nurses recruited from St Marys Hospital (Rochester, MN). Invitation to participate in the study was sent out to staff nurses and clinical nurse specialists who care for critically ill patients at our institution.
Study Design and Intervention
Participants underwent prospective evaluation
Results
Eleven nurses were enrolled in the study; eight completed the intervention. The median age was 44 years (range, 23-61 years). Baseline characteristics and postintervention outcomes are shown in Table 2. The nurses who completed the meditation program were highly satisfied with it, rating it 8.6 out of 10 points. Three nurses did not finish the study. They felt overwhelmed by a combination of personal and professional challenges that led to unexpected increases in time demands. As a result, they
Discussion
This pilot study showed that a self-directed, computer-guided, meditation training program can be useful for stress reduction in hospital nurses. This is an important finding because nurses in the hospital setting can experience varying levels of stress.6, 7 A survey of 1,551 nurses in Japanese hospitals8 reported that work in operating rooms was associated with fatigue, work in intensive care units was associated with anxiety, and work in surgery and internal medicine was associated with
References (16)
- et al.
Role of emotions and stress in the genesis of sudden death
J Am Coll Cardiol
(1985) - et al.
Stress and sudden death
Epilepsy Behav
(2006) - et al.
The cardiovascular toll of stress
Lancet
(2007) - et al.
A brief mindfulness-based stress reduction intervention for nurses and nurse aides
Appl Nurs Res
(2006) - et al.
[Influence of emotional stress and behavior during acute myocardial infarction on prognosis]
Zhonghua Nei Ke Za Zhi
(1989) - et al.
Effect of chronic diseases and associated psychological distress on health-related quality of life
Intern Med J
(2007) - et al.
Nurse stress in hospital and satellite haemodialysis units
J Ren Care
(2008) - et al.
Sleepless in America: nurse managers cope with stress and complexity
J Nurs Adm
(2008)
Cited by (34)
Autism spectrum disorders and anxiety: Measurement and treatment
2021, Neural Engineering Techniques for Autism Spectrum Disorder: Volume 1: Imaging and Signal AnalysisEffects of preventive online mindfulness interventions on stress and mindfulness: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials
2017, Preventive Medicine ReportsCitation Excerpt :Nevertheless, recent surveys indicate that some wellness-related mind-body practices are increasingly popular among both U.S. adults and children (Black et al., 2015; Clarke et al., 2015; Stussman et al., 2015). Online interventions are appealing because they are more cost-effective and user-friendly (Cutshall et al., 2011). In modern society, digital access and internet use have increased considerably (Zickuhr and Smith, 2012), especially among young people (Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project, 2012), with sizable portions of computer and smart phone use devoted to non-occupational pursuits, such as social networking and health tracking (Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project, 2012).
Barriers and facilitators of the use of mind-body therapies by healthcare providers and clinicians to care for themselves
2015, Complementary Therapies in Clinical PracticeCitation Excerpt :Clinicians had difficulty scheduling time off to partake in a particular study or just had an increasing demand on their time [6,7]. Another barrier was the high work demand of healthcare providers [4]. Some of the high work demand included participants changing their schedule to assist their unit with staffing.
Adolescent Stress Management in a Primary Care Clinic
2019, Journal of Pediatric Health CareCitation Excerpt :Wild Divine has been used at medical centers including Mayo Clinic, Children's Miracle Network Hospitals, and the Walter Reed Army Medical Center (Bell, 2003). Other studies have also used this program to promote and measure relaxation (Amon & Campbell, 2008; Cutshall, Wentworth, & Wahner-Roedler, 2011; Knox et al., 2011; McKenna et al., 2015; Pusenjak et al., 2015). After completion of Wild Divine games, HRV was repeated before participants completed a post-intervention satisfaction questionnaire and indicated their subjective distress using the SUDS.
Using Meditation to Reduce Stress, Anxiety, and Depression in Nursing Students
2023, Journal of Nursing Education
Conflict of interest: None.