MINDFULNE S MODEL Of [:.MOTION REGULATION IN NURSING TUO£:.N f'S: WORKING MEMORY CAPACITY AS A REGULATORY MECIIANISM

Abstract

Nursing students often struggle with transitioning from education into clinical practice. These students may be overwhelmed with the emotional demands and high cognitive load resulting from the unpredictable post-graduation/professional work environment. A lack of research exists investigating how nursing students regulate their emotions and what cognitive emotional regulation strategies they use when dealing with the cognitive and emotional demands of nursing school. The integration of mindfulness training into nursing curricula has the potential to facilitate the development of nursing students' \\oOrking memory capacit} (WMC) and improve emotion regulation (ER) ski lls. Although a few studies have investigated mindfulness training with nursing students. there is a lack of empirical evidence examining ho" dispositional mindfulness and WMC influence a nursing student's ability to regulate their emotions. Research evidence suggests that dispositional mindfulness is linked to ER. l lowcver, whether: (a) ER is influenced by di spositional mindfulness; (b) WMC mediates this relationship; and (c) if these factors arc different between education levels has not yet been determined in nursing students. 'I his cross-sectional study examined the relationships between mindfulness, WMC, and ER in a pre-licensure nursing student population from a southeastern Georgia universit}. f\\oO questionnaires and a WMC tasJ... were completed by the sample (n = 80). A path model of the relationships bet\\oeen mindfulness. WMC and ER was tested using structural equation modeling. Factor difTcrenccs bct\.,ccn the four education levels were tested using one-way ANOVA. Mindfulness was positively associated with hR (r = 0.1905, p- 0.045) and WMC (r 0.2977; p- 0.004). The path analyses revealed that there was a direct effect of mindfulness on ER (Ytt 0.292,p 0.034) and WMC (Y2t 4.975,p = 0.004). However, the indirect effect of mindfulness on ER was not statistically significantly mediated by WMC (jJ - O.OJ,p = 0.236). Furthermore, mindfulness was sign ificantly different between the first semester students having the highest level of mindfulness and the fourth semester students having the lowest level of mindfulness, F(J, 76) - 4.12,p < 0.05. Dispositional mindfulness rna) influence l:.R and WMC in nursing students, but the downward trend of mindfulness from first to last semester is concerning. urse educators may consider using mindfulness training to enhance mindfulness, WMC and LR.