Measuring the Impact of Mindfulness Meditation in Nursing Students Simulated Practice

Introduction & Aims: A considerable part of nursing students’ training takes place in simulation laboratories where real-life clinical situations are replicated through guided learning experiences. The subjective experience of stress and anxiety can significantly reduce the quality of the teaching and learning experience, limit the quality of students’ performance and increase the probability of making mistakes that can compromise patients’ safety. Mindfulness meditation is a technique that helps students develop skills of paying attention to themselves and the world in a non-judgemental manner and encourages compassion, acceptance and kindness which are values at the core of the nursing profession. A significant body of literature demonstrates the benefits of mindfulness meditation in terms of stress reduction, increased quality of sleep, increased self-regulatory processes of attention control and emotion regulation. The aim of this project is to explore the potential of mindfulness meditation in improving the quality of the learning and teaching experience of nursing students involved in a simulated clinical scenario based on a case of sudden cardiac death. Methods: The study will consist of three stages. Stage 1: all students will attend 30 minute lecture reiterating the concept of sudden cardiac death and basic life support. The group will then be divided into 2 randomly allocated teams of 4 students each and then asked to manage a 20 minute simulated scenario based on a deteriorating patient resulting in a cardiac arrest. All of the participants’ clinical performances will be video- recorded along with the continuous monitoring of their vital signs. At the end of the simulated session all students will be tested for stress and anxiety levels through the application of validated assessment tools. Feedback will be provided on the participants’ performance during a 30 minute debriefing session based on the video-recorded sessions. Stage 2: all participants will complete a 21-day mindfulness meditation training programme, delivered by a qualified instructor and adapted from the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Programme, devised by Kabat-Zinn. Stage 3: all participants will undergo another simulated skill session following a similar process described in Stage 1. Results & Discussion: The expected outcomes of this study are: improving self-monitoring and attention regulation, reducing anxiety and stress, limiting procedural mistakes, improving the quality of the teaching and learning experience and improving patients’ safety. This session will offer an overview of the preliminary subjective and objective data collected from six 3rd year adult nursing students taking part in the study on a voluntary basis.