The Effects of Mindfulness Meditation on Nursing Students' Stress and Anxiety Levels.

Nursing students face higher stress and anxiety than typical college students due to classroom and clinical demands. A randomized controlled trial with 145 nursing students tested a virtual mindfulness meditation intervention. Participants received either weekly mindfulness meditation recordings or recordings on nursing information. Those in the meditation group reported significantly lower stress and anxiety levels on posttest surveys compared to the control group. Mindfulness meditation can reduce stress and anxiety in nursing students, potentially improving their overall well-being.

Study at a glance

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of a virtual mindfulness meditation intervention on stress and anxiety levels of 145 nursing students. Because of the twin demands of classroom and clinical workloads, nursing students experience greater amounts of stress and anxiety than the average college student. Mindfulness meditation is a promising method to alleviate stress and anxiety. A pretest-posttest randomized controlled design was used. Participants received either weekly mindfulness meditation recordings or recordings on nursing information. Participants completed the Perceived Stress Scale and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 Scale. A two-way mixed analysis of variance and follow-up simple main effects tests revealed that participants in the experimental group, who received meditation recordings, experienced significantly lower levels of stress and anxiety on posttest surveys than the control group. Mindfulness meditation can reduce stress and anxiety levels in nursing students. This can improve students' overall mental and physical well-being.