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Table 4 Thematic analysis of open-ended questions and free text comments

From: Mindfulness as a well-being initiative for future nurses: a survey with undergraduate nursing students

Overarching Themes

Interpretative Themes

Participant quotes

Perceptions of what mindfulness is

Mindfulness is about self-care

Mindfulness is about inner peace and looking after your mental health

Mindfulness is a way of unwinding and going to a better place

Mindfulness is to reduce stress

Being mindful of others

You have to look after yourself to look after others

I think mindfulness means to be open without judgement. To be empathetic towards others and how your words and actions can help or hinder others

Enhanced awareness

Mindfulness is being aware of your thoughts and feelings in response to external influencing factors

Being aware of what is going on at the present moment, being present and not hooked up in the past or future

Taking time to be at peace with your thoughts and emotions

Previous Mindfulness Practice experiences

Helped to relax

Mindfulness helped to relax my mind and provide peace

I loved meditation as it helped me focus on that moment on my breathing and sensations throughout my body, so I was distracted from everything else

Mindfulness does help before I go to sleep

Enhanced mental well-being

Mindfulness alleviated stress and made me happier

Mindfulness removed some worrisome thoughts from my head, validated my feelings and allowed me time to focus on more important things

Mindfulness helped me to stop being so anxious and to stop worrying about the future so much

Previous mindfulness practice not beneficial

I didn’t stick at mindfulness long enough to see any sort of development

Mindfulness didn’t help, it made me more stressed and I just didn’t get it

I found mindfulness a waste of time

Impact of mindfulness in nursing

Benefits to students undertaking the undergraduate nursing programme

Help you to keep the stress of the nursing course and profession overall down, as it is a demanding full-time course, and if you don’t practice mindfulness etc. your mental health could become worse due to these stresses

Mindfulness would be a good way to relieve stress and understand the thoughts that are going through your head as well as better equip students for life after university

Benefits to future clinical practice

Mindfulness will help me appreciate my skills and assure me that I am a good nurse

Mindfulness would allow me to recognise the signs of burnout and mental fatigue, both in myself and other people, and give me the right tools to help combat negative feelings

Mindfulness would help me to cope with the pressure of clinical practice and increase compassion and communication skills

Barriers to mindfulness in undergraduate nursing programme

I don’t personally believe in mindfulness

The previous time I tried a mindfulness class actually stressed me out more as doing nothing made me feel lazy

Timing is a barrier of course. For example, if it would interfere with study for exams or completing assignments

Time constraints and stress

The need for a future well-being initiative for undergraduate nursing students

Nursing course is stressful

This course is very demanding and experiences on placement can have a major impact on nursing students

The pressure and workload of the course can become overwhelming, especially around the end of the year. A well-being initiative would be useful to help student nurses cope with stress and learn how to balance university, placement and home commitments.

Student forgotten

The course is often focussed solely on the patient therefore the professional, or even the student, I personally feel are not regarded.

Sometimes the student’s well-being can be forgotten about, it’s important that they are well in order to attend university and complete certain tasks given to them.

Take care of the students so they can take care of others

Taking care of our [the student] health and wellbeing first and foremost so we can help others

A well-being initiative would help teach future self-care methods for our nursing career

Future well-being initiative should not be mandatory

A future well-being initiative should be available but maybe not mandatory

A well-being initiative could benefit some students, but it may not because missing a session can lead to more stress. The curriculum is already full time and it would be difficult to add more to it.