CN38 - The effect of a mindfulness-based stress reduction program on the pediatric hematology: Oncology nurses' professional quality of life and perceived stress level

Background

It is important to improve the professional life quality and reduce the stress level of pediatric hematology-oncology nurses. What strategies pediatric oncology nurses choose to cope with stress or difficult situations and which strategies are effective is gray in the literature. In our study, it was aimed to apply a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) Program to pediatric hematology-oncology nurses and to evaluate the effect on nurses' professional quality of life and perceived stress level.

Methods

A pre-test, post-test, one-group quasi-experimental study was conductedwith pediatric oncology-hematology nurses who work in a private hospital in Istanbul between November 15, 2021, and June 15, 2022. MBSR Program was applied to the nurses as sessions lasting 60-90 minutes once in a week for eight weeks. Data was collected by the ‘Nurse Information Form', the ‘Professional Quality of Life Scale-IV' and the ‘Perceived Stress Scale'. It is planned to reach 38 nurses in line with the G*Power (3.1.9.4) program.

Results

The mean age of the nurses was 42.80±7.09, 95% of the female, 45.0% of them has bachelor’s degrees, 60% of the single, 90% of them were satisfied with the unit they worked in. The duration of working was 9.20±7.42, and 35% had previously attended mindfulness training. After intervention, the mean compassion fatigue (CF) (14.10±6.31), and burnout (18.45±5.73) scores of nurses decreased statistically significantly compared to the before (respectively 16.75±7.03; p=0.014; 21.10±7.14; p=0.017). No statistically significant difference was found between the mean scores of compassion satisfaction (CS), perceived stress of nurses before and after intervention (p> .05). When the effect size of the study was calculated with 95% power and a 5% margin of error, it was determined that d=0.42 and it had a medium effect size.

Conclusions

It was determined that MBSR practice decreased the burnout and CF levels of pediatric hematology-oncology nurses but did not affect their perceived stress and CS levels. It is recommended that MBSR practices should be disseminated, and future studies should be conducted in different groups.

Clinical trial identification

Editorial acknowledgement

Legal entity responsible for the study

T. Pehlivan, R. Semerci, B.B. Çalışkan.

Funding

Has not received any funding.

Disclosure

All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.