title: Protective benefits of mindfulness in emergency room personnel.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Recent meta-analyses have found that mindfulness practice may reduce anxiety and depression in clinical populations and there is growing evidence that mindfulness may also improve well-being and quality of care in health professionals. This study examined whether mindfulness protects against the impact of work-related stress on mental health and burnout in emergency room (ER) nurses.
  
  
  METHODS
  ER nurses (N=50) were recruited from an urban teaching hospital in Switzerland and completed a survey on work-related stressors, mindfulness, burnout, depression, and anxiety.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The most frequently reported work-related stressor was interpersonal conflict. Nurses working more consecutive days since last taking time off were at greater risk for depression and those reporting more work-related interpersonal conflicts were at greater risk for burnout. Mindfulness was associated with reduced anxiety, depression, and burnout. Mindfulness was a significant predictor of anxiety, depression, and burnout and moderated the impact of work-related stressors on mental health and burnout.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The sample is limited to nurses and results need to be replicated in other groups (e.g., medical staff or ambulance workers). We assessed clinical symptoms with questionnaires and it would be desirable to repeat this assessment with clinical diagnostic interviews.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The findings have implications for stress management in ER nurses and health professionals working in comparable settings (e.g., urgent care). The robust associations between mindfulness and multiple indices of psychological well-being suggest that ER staff exposed to high levels of occupational stress may benefit from mindfulness practice to increase resistance to mental health problems and burnout.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Pace University, United States; Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University, United States. Electronic address: mwestphal@pace.edu.
authors.forename: Maren
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Westphal
authors.affiliation: Emergency Department, University Hospital Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Martina-Barbara
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Bingisser
authors.affiliation: Department of Biostatistics, Columbia University, United States.
authors.forename: Tianshu
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.affiliation: Department of Biostatistics, Columbia University, United States.
authors.forename: Melanie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wall
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Pace University, United States.
authors.forename: Emily
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Blakley
authors.affiliation: Emergency Department, University Hospital Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Roland
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bingisser
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Zürich, Switzerland. Electronic address: b.kleim@psychologie.uzh.ch.
authors.forename: Birgit
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Kleim
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology*; D002055:Burnout, Professional / Q000523:psychology*; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D003863:Depression / Q000523:psychology*; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D064866:Mindfulness; D009726:Nurses / Q000523:psychology*; D065840:Protective Factors; D013557:Switzerland; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Anxiety; Burnout; Depression; Emergency care; Mindfulness; Nurses