Background

Fourth-year nursing students are under stress due to internal, external, and situational stressors.

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of an online mindfulness intervention on fourth-year nursing students' depression, anxiety, stress, and coping.

Methods

Lazarus and Folkman's Transactional Model of Stress and Coping was used to guide the proposed intervention using a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest one-group design. Students took the pretest at the start of the semester, 2 weeks later they started the intervention for 4 weeks. The posttest was administered 2 weeks after completion of the intervention.

Results

Nursing students who completed the 4-week online mindfulness intervention reported decreased anxiety and stress. Open-ended questions revealed the intervention was beneficial, and the time spent practicing mindfulness was valuable.

Conclusion

The online mindfulness intervention resulted in lowered anxiety and stress in nursing students' engaged in clinical courses and warrants further study.