Nursing Students' Covid-19 Induced Stress: Promoting Mindfulness and Resilience

Nursing education to prepare students for practice traditionally includes teaching knowledge and developing clinical judgment in the physical classroom, laboratory, and clinical setting. The Covid-19 pandemic presented challenges previously unseen in academia. An abrupt shift to online learning was associated with higher levels of stress and anxiety. In response, the faculty at a mid-sized, rural, four-year private university in the Midwest incorporated mindfulness and resilience practices into courses to promote coping mechanisms for use throughout nursing school and in future practice, and surveyed students to determine the degree to which they used the mindfulness and resilience strategies provided. This article describes the implementation of the strategies, survey results, and lessons learned to inform use in the future.