Behavioral Activation, Mindfulness Exercises, and Loving-Kindness Meditation Exercises as Effective Therapies to Reduce Stress among Nursing Students’ during COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic could increase stress which will impact the student’s achievement during the pandemic situation. AIM: The purpose of the study was to analyze stress among Indonesian nursing students’ after giving the interventions of behavioral activation (BA), mindfulness exercises (ME), and loving-kindness meditation exercise (LKME) during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: This study was a quasi-experimental study with a one-group pre-test-post-test design. Data collection has been conducted in 4 weeks’ period on April–May 2021 using consecutive sampling. The sample of this study was 83 respondents in Level II of Indonesian nursing students at Stikes Kesdam IV/Diponegoro who have fulfilled the inclusion criteria. The instrument used was the Perceived Stress Scale. RESULTS: The majority of respondents are women, namely, 64 respondents (77.1%). After being given the intervention of BA, ME, and LKME, respondents decreased their stress with a mean of 16.66 became 14.76. The dependent t-test showed that the p value was 0.000 (p < 0.05), which means that there was a significance difference in stress pre- and post-intervention. The mean difference was 1.90 and the paired difference t-test was 0.000 (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: BA, MEs, and LKME are recommended as stress coping mechanisms for Indonesian nursing students during the COVID-19 pandemic.