Brief meditation and acute stress in undergraduate nursing students: a pre-post study of an embedded wellness
Bianca Doczi1, Anusha Vissapragada2
1School of Nursing, Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Boston, MA, USA.
Objective:
This study examined whether brief Sahaja Yoga Meditation (SYM) was associated with changes in perceived stress and resilience, and whether observed changes were robust across analytic samples.
Participants:
First- and second-semester undergraduate nursing students at a private U.S. health sciences university (January-May 2026).
Methods:
Single-group pre-post intervention study. Twenty-minute SYM sessions were delivered in-person and virtually. Resilience was measured via the Brief Resilience Scale and perceived stress via a single-item 0-10 scale.
Results:
Across 84 participants (99 sessions), perceived stress declined sharply (mean reduction 2.33 points; d = -1.42, p < .001), while trait resilience was unchanged (d = +0.12, p = .281). The stress reduction was consistent across nested samples and demographic subgroups.
Conclusions:
Brief, embedded SYM was associated with substantial within-session reductions in acute perceived stress, though trait resilience was unchanged over a single session. Controlled trials are needed to establish causal efficacy.
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