Self-Care for Nurses Who Care for Others: The Effectiveness of Meditation as a Self-Care Strategy
Junghyun Kwon
Religions January 9, 2023 DOI: 10.3390/rel14010090 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Observational comparative study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Korean nurses at a university hospital, divided into those with meditation experience and those without |
| Intervention | Meditation |
| Duration | One and a half years since the study (turnover follow-up) |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Key findings | Nurses without meditation experience had more depressive symptoms (62.2% vs 15.6%) and lower resilience (3.04 ± 0.41 vs 4.01 ± 0.44) than nurses with meditation experience, and their turnover rate about one and a half years later was twice as high (17.8% vs 8.9%). The authors conclude that consistent meditation practice is associated with lower depression and higher resilience, and suggest it as an effective self-care strategy. |
Abstract
Self-care is how nurses promote their own physical and mental health. Effective self-care is any strategy practiced on a regular basis to prevent stress and anxiety and to enhance the health and well-being. Self-care ranges from getting more rest to seeking professional help. Meditation practice is known to be an effective self-care strategy. The purpose of this study is to assess the effect of meditation as a self-care strategy among Korean nurses. Two groups of nurses at the university hospital, one with meditation experience and the other without, were selected as study participants, and their depression and resilience were analyzed. The results of the study show that, first, depressive symptoms were more prevalent among the nurses in the non-meditative group (62.2%) than the ones in the meditative group (15.6%), and resilience positivity was higher in the meditative group (4.01 ± 0.44) than in non-meditative group (3.04 ± 0.41). Second, nurses with depressive symptoms demonstrated particularly low resilience in both groups, indicating that resilience is inversely associated with other metal disorders. Third, after one and a half years since the study, the turnover rate of the non-meditative group (17.8%) was twice that of meditative group (8.9%). As stated in the earlier self-care literature that stressed the benefits of meditation, this study confirms that consistent meditation experience on a regular basis has an effect on nurses’ well-being via lower depression and promotes higher psychological well-being via resilience. This study is expected to provide the data collected from the field, including personal narratives, to establish more effective self-care strategies in personal and professional settings.
Comparable studies
Other observational and cohort studies on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Using Self-Report Assessment Methods to Explore Facets of Mindfulness Undergraduate students | 2006 | Observational cohort | |
| Effectiveness of a meditation-based stress reduction program in the treatment of anxiety disorders Patients with generalized anxiety disorder or panic disorder with or without agoraphobia | 1992 | Observational cohort | n = 22 |
| Meditation experience is associated with increased cortical thickness Participants with extensive Insight meditation experience and matched controls | 2005 | Observational cohort | n = 20 |
| Meditation experience is associated with differences in default mode network activity and connectivity Experienced meditators and matched meditation-naive controls | 2011 | Observational cohort | |
| Long-term meditators self-induce high-amplitude gamma synchrony during mental practice Long-term Buddhist practitioners and controls | 2004 | Observational cohort |