Mindfulness and nursing

What is mindfulness? It’s the practice of bringing your awareness into the present moment.  It’s about noticing the ‘right now’ by engaging your five senses and watching your thoughts as they come and go without holding onto or pushing away what your are experiencing.
In clinical populations, evidence suggests mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) can reduce symptoms linked to various conditions, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, and depression. Among healthcare professionals, mindfulness training can reduce psychological and physiologic stress, emotional distress, and burnout while improving empathy, job satisfaction, and sense of well-being.
Many of us are on “automatic pilot,” with our bodies operating in a routine pattern while our minds are somewhere else—usually anticipating future events or ruminating over something that has happened.
Mindfulness practices can help us recognise mental habits that limit our understanding of something or restrict our options for action. Consider, for example, how negative self-talk can grip your attention and circle in your mind like a hamster in a wheel. By being able to notice when your mind is engaged in these common but unhelpful thinking patterns, you can bring attention to the feeling of the breath as it’s moving in and out of your body or noticing the physical sensations of your body as it is right now. This intentional shifting of the mind to present-moment experience can help interrupt stressful thinking and may enhance your sense of calm.
Mindfulness and nursing
How can mindfulness help nurses? Greater awareness and less distraction in the clinical setting can improve your assessment skills (for instance, allowing you to identify subtle changes in a patient’s condition) and your performance of complex technical procedures that may reduce the risk of clinical errors. Mindfulness can enhance your communication with patients and other healthcare team members by bringing a greater awareness to how and what others are communicating. Listening and speaking with greater attention can lead to more effective communication and better clinical outcomes, particularly in crisis situations. Moreover, research shows mindfulness training can help nurses cope more effectively with stress and reduce the risk of professional burnout.
How to do you learn to be mindful?

Here are a couple of quick tips to get you started on the art of mindfulness.
Breathing
Get out your tablet, your phone, or your watch with a second hand. Make sure you can see it clearly in front of you. The aim of this exercise is to focus on your breathing and nothing else, on the inspiration and expiration only.  Start your timer or on the 12 o’clock….ready, set, go! For sixty seconds completely focus on your breathing only.

Eating
In the busy world in which we live, the art of eating a meal without engaging in any other activities is rare. The purpose of this exercise is to turn off all distractions; the TV, tablet, phone, put down the newspaper and books and turn off the music. Sit at the table and really focus on the meal in front of you, its appearance, the smell, the taste, the portion size, how you cut your food up, how you use your arm to raise the utensil to your mouth.  A bit like a personal master chef judge… Really enjoy the moment of the meal, the taste sensation and how filling the meal can be. Bon Apetite!

Walking
The next time you take a walk for whatever reason, take notice! Just like eating and breathing, concentrate on how your feet feel touching the ground, your breathing, the feel of your shoes. Observe what is around you, the sensations going on, making sure you stay right where you need to be…in the present.
Being more mindful and bringing receptivity to whatever is happening can deepen your understanding of clinical situations, relationships with colleagues, and ultimately yourself. With this understanding comes the possibility of providing wiser and more compassionate care for your patients and yourself.

References
Lois C. Howland, DrPH, MSN, RN, and Susan Bauer-Wu, PhD, RN, FAAN. The Mindful Nurse. The American Nurse Today. September 2015 Vol. 10 No. 9.
Bron Watson. Reflective Practice in Nursing. Nurse Power.