Mindfulness-Based Program for Nurses' Stress, Satisfaction, and Performance

Official title

The Effect of Mindfulness-based Psychoeducation Program on Job Stress, Job Satisfaction and Job Performance Among Nurses: A Randomized Controlled Study

Overview

Nurses often work in busy and stressful hospital environments, which can affect their well-being, job satisfaction, and work performance. Mindfulness is a set of practices that help individuals focus on the present moment and cope better with stress. Mindfulness-based programs have been shown to reduce stress and improve emotional well-being in healthcare workers, but their effects on nurses' job satisfaction and work performance are not yet well understood. This study aims to examine whether a mindfulness-based psychoeducation program can reduce job stress and improve job satisfaction and job performance among nurses. The study will include nurses working in a public hospital in Isparta, Turkey. Participants will be randomly assigned to either an intervention group that receives the mindfulness program or a control group. All participants will complete assessments before the program, after the program, and again three months later. The findings of this study are expected to provide useful information on whether mindfulness training can improve nurse's important work-related outcomes.

Detailed description

Mindfulness has long been an important area of research in clinical psychology, and its use has expanded into organizational settings as evidence grows regarding its positive effects on employees' well-being and work-related outcomes. Nurses, who often work under heavy workload, emotional demands, and stressful conditions in hospital environments, are among the occupational groups that may benefit most from such interventions. High levels of work stress among nurses can negatively influence their psychological, physiological, and social well-being, and can reduce job satisfaction and work performance.

Although previous studies have examined the impact of mindfulness-based programs on outcomes such as stress, burnout, empathy, depressive symptoms, and quality of work life among nurses, the evidence regarding their effects on job satisfaction is limited and inconsistent. Moreover, mindfulness-based interventions have rarely been evaluated in relation to the multidimensional nature of nurses' job performance. There remains a need for well-designed studies that examine how mindfulness training may influence nurses' job-related outcomes more comprehensively.

This study aims to address this gap by evaluating the effects of a mindfulness-based psychoeducation program on job stress, job satisfaction, and job performance among nurses working in a major public hospital in Isparta, Turkey. The study will employ a randomized controlled design with baseline, post-intervention, and three-month follow-up assessments. Nurses will be randomly allocated to an intervention group, which will participate in the mindfulness-based psychoeducation program, or to a control group that will not receive any intervention during the study period.

The intervention includes structured psychoeducational content and mindfulness practices tailored for healthcare professionals, focusing on developing present-moment awareness, improving coping skills, and enhancing emotional balance in demanding clinical environments. By assessing changes across multiple time points, the study aims to provide a more complete understanding of the program's short-term and sustained effects.

The findings are expected to contribute to the literature by offering clearer evidence on whether mindfulness-based programs can improve nurses' job stress and key job-related outcomes, particularly job satisfaction and multidimensional job performance, which have been insufficiently explored in previous research.

Interventions

• Behavioral Mindfulness-Based Psychoeducation Program
  The mindfulness-based psychoeducation program, developed by an Associate Professor in psychiatric nursing, consists of four weekly 90-minute sessions tailored to nurses' working conditions. It includes selected exercises from Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy programs, along with homework to practice skills between sessions. The program's content and objectives were validated by ten mindfulness experts using the Lawshe method and Content Validity Ratios.

Primary outcome measures

• Job stress [Time frame: Baseline, Week 4, Week 16]
• Job Satisfaction [Time frame: Baseline, Week 4, Week 16]
• Individual Job Performance [Time frame: Baseline, Week 4, Week 16]

Secondary outcome measures (2)

• Mindfulness Level [Time frame: Baseline, Week 4, Week 16]
• Demographic Information [Time frame: Baseline]

Eligibility criteria

Inclusion criteria

• Currently employed as a staff nurse in the hospital's clinical units.
• Willing to voluntarily participate in the study.

Exclusion criteria

• Previous participation in any mindfulness-based program.
• Presence of a major psychiatric disorder or currently receiving psychiatric medication or psychotherapy.
• Active medical condition that prevents participation in the program (e.g., malignancy).
• Currently experiencing bereavement.
• Holding managerial or head nurse positions, due to different roles and responsibilities.

Criteria are shown verbatim from the registry (in English). Final eligibility is always assessed by the study center.

Healthy volunteers: Yes

Study design

Allocation

Randomized

Model

Parallel assignment

Masking

Single blind

Primary purpose

Treatment

Study locations

Center list to be confirmed — check the primary protocol.

Publications

• Hilcove K, Marceau C, Thekdi P, Larkey L, Brewer MA, Jones K. Holistic Nursing in Practice: Mindfulness-Based Yoga as an Intervention to Manage Stress and Burnout. J Holist Nurs. 2021 Mar;39(1):29-42. doi: 10.1177/0898010120921587. Epub 2020 May 27. PMID 32460584
• Parvaresh, M., Taghinezhad, N., Amirfakhraei, A., & Sabahizadeh, M. (2023). Effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Flexibility Training on Nurses' Job Satisfaction. Journal of Assessment and Research in Applied Counseling, 5(2), 146-155.
• Ghawadra SF, Lim Abdullah K, Choo WY, Danaee M, Phang CK. The effect of mindfulness-based training on stress, anxiety, depression and job satisfaction among ward nurses: A randomized control trial. J Nurs Manag. 2020 Jul;28(5):1088-1097. doi: 10.1111/jonm.13049. Epub 2020 Jun 24. PMID 32432795
• Çalışkan, B.B., Güneş, A., Tekin, Y.E., Ayvaz, M.Y., & Kızıl, H. (2024). The effect of conscious mindfulness-based program (MBP) applied to emergency nurses on their anxiety and quality of life: A randomized controlled study. Journal of Psychiatric Nursing, 15(3), 225-233.
• Bazarko D, Cate RA, Azocar F, Kreitzer MJ. The Impact of an Innovative Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Program on the Health and Well-Being of Nurses Employed in a Corporate Setting. J Workplace Behav Health. 2013 Apr;28(2):107-133. doi: 10.1080/15555240.2013.779518. PMID 23667348
• Alfurjani AM, Al-Hammouri MM, Rababah JA, Alhawatmeh HN, Hall LA. The effect of a mindfulness-based intervention on stress overload, depression, and mindfulness among nurses: A randomized controlled trial. Worldviews Evid Based Nurs. 2024 Feb;21(1):34-44. doi: 10.1111/wvn.12695. Epub 2023 Dec 11. PMID 38083806

Identifiers

NCT: NCT07402564 · SDU-KC-MINDFULNESS

Primary sources (government registries)

• ClinicalTrials.gov (US NIH)

View this study on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗