Emergency department staff described high work pressure and perceived stress, but those who attended a mantra meditation programme reported benefits including increased attention and awareness, improved emotion regulation, new coping mechanisms, relaxation, and better sleep. Conflicting attitudes and barriers such as scheduling, practice length, and individual differences also emerged. Staff voiced a need for a workplace well-being programme. The findings suggest mantra meditation might be a viable tool to improve attention, emotion regulation, and stress coping, potentially impacting workplace well-being, patient safety, and care quality. Organizational support was seen as integral to embedding such a programme.
Emotional exhaustion among healthcare professionals can increase medical errors and reduce patient satisfaction. This feasibility study tests whether random controlled trial methods can assess mantra meditation as a stress-reducing intervention for emergency department staff. Thirty eligible staff in the intervention group will learn mantra meditation in four 4-hour sessions over six weeks and practice 20 minutes of meditation twice daily; thirty in the passive control group will work as usual. Data on psychological wellbeing, blood pressure, heart rate variability, and salivary cortisol will be collected before, after the intervention at week 11, and at follow-up at week 19. The study aims to evaluate recruitment, retention, adherence, and data management before a full trial.