Integrating Mindfulness Meditation into Undergraduate Nursing Curricula

Stress and anxiety impact the lives of undergraduate nursing students. Learning how to cope with the stressful demands of nursing school is essential for student success. Watson\u27s caring and healing philosophy notes that learning to care for self is foundational in learning to care for others. Literature also reports that nursing programs across the country are lacking instruction on alternative therapies as a self-care method. A need to integrate self-care into curricula was identified by personal knowing as a nursing clinical instructor and through a self-care questionnaire to undergraduate obstetric nursing students. The integration of mindfulness meditation, as a means of self- care, into an eight week undergraduate nursing clinical rotation, using Watson\u27s theoretical framework proved to be a stress reliever. The process of mindfulness meditation as a self-care method was an effective way to reduce stress and anxiety in undergraduate nursing students