Can Mindfulness ameliorate Nurse–Patient Relations among Italian Oncology Nurses?

Background: Ensuring care for patients represents the first duty of nurses. Facing patients’ requirements is important to nursing care to objectively assess whether nursing interventions supply high-quality care and answer to the greatest demands of specialized care nursing. At the same time, mindfulness meditation has been reported to improve psychological well-being, also among nurses. The aim of this study was to assess associations between nurse–patient relations and mindfulness among oncology nurses who are constantly stressed in their work environments.

Methods: An on-line nationwide survey was disseminated among Italian oncology nurses. The “Caring Nurse-Patient Interactions Scale” (CNPI) and the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ) were proposed. The CNPI investigated a further four subdimensions, specifically clinical, relational, humanistic and comforting care. The FFMQ was also administered to assess five factors of mindfulness: “Observing”, “Describing”, “Acting with Awareness”, “Non-Judging of inner experience”, and “Non-Reactivity to inner experience”.

Results: Both significant positive and negative correlations were found between the following:

Clinical dimension and observing (r=0.114; p=0.047), describing (r=0.154; p=0.007), acting (r=0.178, p=0.002), and non-reactivity (p=-0.140; p=0.014).

Relational dimension and observing (r=0.182; p=0.001), describing (r=0.349; p<0.001), acting (r=0.279, p<0.001), and non-reactivity (p=-0.204; p<0.001).

Humanistic dimension and observing (r=0.161; p=0.005), describing (r=0.215; p<0.001), acting (r=0.174, p=0.002), and non-reactivity (p=-0.175; p=0.002).

No significant associations were found between the nurse–patient relation dimension and non-judging aspects or between the comforting dimension and the subdimensions of mindfulness.

Conclusion: Mindfulness can effectively promote caring nurse–patient relations in oncology nurses in all the investigated subdimensions.