Effect of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) on death anxiety and job burnout in Intensive Care Unit nurses

Abstract

Objective To understand the effect of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) on death anxiety and job burnout in Intensive Care Unit (ICU) nurses. Methods Using cluster sampling method, ICU nurses from two ClassⅢ Grade A hospitals in Dazhou city of Sichuan Province were selected as the research objects. In order to avoid mutual influence, nurses were divided into groups according to hospitals. Totally 32 ICU nurses in one hospital were set as the control group and 38 ICU nurses in another hospital as the observation group. During the course of the study, one nurse in the observation group quit the study due to personal reasons, and 37 nurses finally completed the study. The nurses in the control group did not receive any intervention, while the nurses in the observation group were adopted the MBSR intervention. The intervention effect was evaluated by the Chinese Version of Templer-death Anxiety Scale (CT-DAS) and Job Burnout Scale. Results There was no statistically significant difference between the two groups before intervention in terms of their Death Anxiety Scale score (P>0.05) ; the score in Death Anxiety Scale in the observation group was lower than the control group after intervention and the difference was statistically significant (P 0.05) ; after intervention, the total score of Job Burnout Scale and the score of emotional fatigue in the observation group were lower than those in the control group with statistical significances (P 0.05) . Conclusions MBSR therapy can reduce the death anxiety level and job burnout of ICU nurses. Key words: Nurses; Intensive Care Unit; Mindfulness-Based Sterss Reduction; Death anxiety; Job burnout