Title: Effects of Using Mindfulness Recordings with Nursing Students

Biography:

Dawn Drahnak. I have a broad background in acute care, perioperative and critical care nursing, with specific training and expertise as a clinical nurse specialist, educator (academia, clinical, and staff development) and experience with survey research and secondary data analysis on compliance with sepsis screening in the acute care setting. I have also collaborated on a pilot project focused on the effects on integration of a simulated electronic health record into high-fidelity simulation with undergraduate nursing students and a project focused on use of interactive video-based teaching to improve nursing students’ ability to provide patient-centered discharge teaching. In addition, I successfully administered the sepsis research and collaborated with other researchers for the latter projects, and produced peer-reviewed publications from each project.

Abstract

Stress experienced by nursing students during clinical education is a precursor to what they may experience throughout their careers.  It is imperative that faculty consider ways to support student “self-care” that will be transferrable into their professional practice. One means to support students is through the introduction of mindfulness exercises.  Mindfulness practice can serve to reduce negative emotional reactivity. Students listened to mindfulness audio recordings at the beginning of clinical shifts and recorded their thoughts in a journal. Journal entry analysis confirmed student stress and its impact on time management and student productivity. There were five themes identified upon content analysis of the journals: Feeling Anxious, Stressed, Unfocused; The More Stress, the Less They Feel Mindfulness Works; Missing Out/Isolation/Distracted/Time Management; Listening as a Group is Preferred to Listening Alone; and Mindfulness Can Bring the Focus Back to the Task at Hand and Help Students Feel Refreshed.  Student journals highlighted the stressors of education and provided useful information for continued study for effective student stress management techniques. Incorporation of mindfulness-based stress reduction strategies and self-care into the curriculum has been identified as a student need and will continue to be implemented throughout the program