The Effects of a Web-Based Mindfulness Meditation on Stress and Depressive Symptoms in Undergraduate Pre-licensure Nursing Students: A Pilot Study

Abstract

Purpose: The primary aim of this pilot two-arm randomized controlled trial was to (1) examine the effects of a web-based mindfulness meditation intervention on stress and depressive symptoms in nursing students, (2) examine the effects of a web-based mindfulness meditation intervention on the factors that impact stress and depressive symptoms in nursing students, and (3) examine the associations between baseline factors and baseline stress and depressive symptoms in nursing students. A secondary aim was to examine the feasibility of delivering a web-based mindfulness intervention to nursing students.

Background: Nursing students experience stress and depressive symptoms at higher rates than their non-nursing college peers. There are several factors known to impact the stress and depressive symptoms of nursing students. Among those factors are resilience, personal resources, positive emotions, negative emotions, coping, year in program, age, and interpersonal relationships. Stress and depressive symptoms are known to impact the physical well-being, psychological well-being, academic performance, behaviors, and quality of life for nursing students. Mindfulness meditation has been shown to decrease stress and depressive symptoms in nursing students. However, the face-to-face delivery method can be burdensome to the busy nursing student. Up to this point, there has not been any studies to examine the impact of a web-based mindfulness intervention in nursing students.

Methods: There were three phases of the study. The first and second phase, used a cluster randomization method to assign participants to either a control or intervention group. During the third phase, all participants were assigned to the intervention group. The intervention was a 4-week web-based mindfulness meditation intervention. The four weekly session were delivered synchronously using the Zoom platform. Pre-test and post-test data were collected using an on-line survey tool and participants were sent individual links to their email. Multiple regression analysis was used to determine the correlations between baseline factors and baseline stress and depressive symptoms. Independent t-tests were used to determine the change in post-test stress and depressive symptoms.

Results: The model using all nine factors (resilience, personal resources, positive emotions, negative emotions, coping, year in program, age, and interpersonal relationships) explained approximately 42% of the variance in stress (p < .001) and roughly 64% of the variance in depressive symptoms (p < .001). Coping and negative emotions were significantly correlated with stress (p = .045, p = .003, respectively). Coping, personal resources, positive emotions, and negative emotions were significantly correlated with depressive symptoms (p = .009, p = .037, p = .009, p < .001, respectively).

Conclusion: While web-based mindfulness meditation was effective in lowering stress and depressive symptoms in this sample of nursing students, larger studies using more rigorous study designs are needed to improve the reliability and generalizability of these results.