Mindfulnurse
A state of inner calm that helps you connect more deeply with colleagues, patients and their relatives.
Mindfulness and self-compassion are useful in helping any individual cope with the pressures of everyday life but may be even more useful in healthcare, where pressures are great and the ability to deliver compassionate care is fundamental.
In 2019, 44% of registered nurses and midwives said they had felt unwell due to stress in the past year – up from 43.5% in 2018 and 41.1% in 2015.
Mindfulness
An integrative, mind–body based approach that helps people change the way they think and feel about their experiences, especially stressful experiences. It involves paying attention to our thoughts and feelings so we become more aware of them, less enmeshed in them, and better able to manage them.
Compassion
Compassion involves being open to, and moved by, the suffering of others, so that one desires to ease their suffering. It also involves offering others patience, kindness and non-judgmental understanding, recognising that all humans are imperfect and make mistakes.
Mindfulnurse
Penque (2009) found nurses who incorporated mindfulness into their working lives were more likely to feel less stressed about work, and that mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) programmes for nurses improved practice by enhancing the nurse’s presence. This could, in turn, improve patient care through improved satisfaction and safety.
Relevant evidence base
Mindfulness to promote nurses' well-being
The findings from this study demonstrated a reduction in job burnout and improvement in specific psychological factors—mindfulness, self-compassion, and serenity—through the use of a mindfulness-based program and its practices.
Mindful compassion training to nurses
This research project explores the use of mindfulness and compassion meditation training and its application to one of the most essential issues affecting the author’s professional context: compassion in nursing (CIN).
Mindfulness based stress reduction effects on registered nurses
This study attempted to determine whether MBSR is an effective tool to support nurses psychologically and to improve work satisfaction as they perform essential work roles.
The conceptual model of increase in mindfulness affecting nursing practice through enhanced self compassion and serenity, and decrease in job burnout is supported through these research findings and needs to be applied as an intervention for hospital nursing practice
Self‐compassion and emotional intelligence in nurses
The purpose of this descriptive, correlational study was to examine the relationship between self-compassion and emotional intelligence in nurses.
Results indicated a positive correlation between self‐compassion and emotional intelligence.
Recommendations for future research include:
exploration of self‐compassion and emotional intelligence in nurses,
identification of the benefits of enhancing self‐compassion and emotional intelligence in nurses.
Mindfulness-based stress reduction training yields improvements in well-being and rates of perceived nursing errors among hospital nurses
This pilot study aims to further document mindfulness‐based stress reduction (MBSR)'s effect on well‐being while exploring its impact on errors among hospital nurses.
Initial findings suggest that the benefits of MBSR may extend to nursing errors.
Exploring how mindfulness and self-compassion can enhance compassionate care
This article aims to explore the concepts of mindfulness and self-compassion, particularly in relation to compassionate care.
Self-compassion is an important component of mindfulness, and healthcare professionals should be aware of the relationship between caring for others and caring for oneself in providing sustained compassionate care.
Mindfulness in nursing: an evolutionary concept analysis
To report an analysis of the concept of mindfulness using Rodgers evolutionary method of concept analysis.
Mindfulness is a significant concept for the discipline of nursing with practical applications for nurse well-being, the development and sustainability of therapeutic nursing qualities and holistic health promotion.
It is imperative that nurse well-being and self-care become a more prominent focus in nursing research and education. Further development of the concept of mindfulness could support this focus, particularly through rigorous qualitative methodologies.
The effectiveness of mindfulness meditation for nurses and nursing students: An integrated literature review.
The objective of this integrative review was to critically appraise the literature that related to the effectiveness of mindfulness meditation programs for nurses and nursing students.
This review indicated that mindfulness meditation is an effective strategy for preventing and managing the workplace stress and burnout, which so often plague nursing staff and students.
Further studies with larger sample sizes using rigorous research methods would be useful in extending this work.
As nurses are the largest body of caregivers in healthcare settings, it is important to recognise that the concept of mindfulness enriches their practice and ability to provide quality care.
Landscape
The value of the meditation market is set to double from $1.2 billion in 2017 to $2 billion by 2022.
Free download, then optional subscription £9.99/month, £44.99/year, iOS/Android
Headspace
>60 million members across 190 countries
Great choice to learn the essentials of meditation
Free 10-part “basics” course and animations
Headspace uses tested and proven meditation techniques
Free one week trial, then £28.99/year, iOS/Android
Calm
25 million users with 2m subscribers (as of 7/9/19)
Music tracks engineered to help you focus, relax or sleep, such as Calm Body
Sleep Stories, which are calming tales narrated by celebrities including Stephen Fry
Mood check-in feature
Free download, optional subscription £9.99/month, £54.99/year), iOS/Android
Stop, Breath & Think
“The emotional wellness platform for the “under 25” generation.”
Asks you to “check in” before meditating, using a choice of adjectives to describe how you’re feeling, both physically and mentally.
Uses this information to recommend short, guided meditations or yoga
Supports Tools for Peace, a non-profit that teaches mindfulness skills to inner-city teens, by sharing 10 per cent of its net revenues.
Mindfulnurse app
A combination of the best features existing apps targeted and broken down specifically for nurses.
Check-in
Check in feature using adjectives for parts of the day allowing for daily tracking.
Charting of mood
Trigger events
Utilise certain ‘trigger’ events that can happen in a day to recommend a guide or motivational advice.
Bite sized
Variety of lengths to fit into parts of day - 2min “Post handover” , 5min “Lunch”, 15min “commute". 20+mins “unwind”.
Collaboration opportunities
NHS
In 2019, 44% of registered nurses and midwives said they had felt unwell due to stress in the past year – up from 43.5% in 2018 and 41.1% in 2015.
59% - said they had come into work in the past three months despite not feeling well enough.
As stress and mental processes such as inattention are potential sources of error, MBSR may also help to improve patient safety.
Universities
Digital Health accelerators with links to academia and clinical units e.g London South Bank University - SimDH accelerator
Music industry
Utilising music industry knowledge and current ‘down time’ for content marketing, engagement, event planning
Marketing Channels
Media
Newspaper sites, magazines to demographic:
Daily Mail, Cosmopolitan
RCN / NMC
Royal College of Nursing for CPD accreditation
NMC to endorse and filter to all registered nurses
The 3-minute breathing space
Bring attention to and take an upright, confident posture to help step out of automatic thinking,
then spend about one minute each on the following three steps.
Minute 1
Ask yourself 'What is my experience right now?' and notice any body sensations, thoughts or feelings you are having, allowing them to be as they are without judging them.
Minute 2
Place your attention on your breathing, following the in-and-out breath as it naturally occurs.
Minute 3
Expand your awareness to the whole of your body, continuing to notice any thoughts, feelings or physical sensations that occur, without judgment.