Meditation's Effect on Attentional Efficiency, Stress, and Mindfulness Characteristics of Nursing Students.

BACKGROUND: Strengthening attention-regulation efficiency of nurse graduates is important to the quality and safety of nursing practice in increasingly complex and cognitively distracting workplaces. Neuroscientific evidence suggests that regular practice of focused meditation can enhance attentional skills. This study explored meditation as an educational strategy for enhancing nursing students' attentional efficiency. METHOD: A randomized-control trial with 52 prelicensure nursing students examined differences between those who meditated and those who did not on measurements of alerting, orienting, and executive attention. Stress and mindfulness were also explored. RESULTS: Meditation demonstrated moderate strength for enhancing executive attention, F = 4.26 (1, 49), n2 = .080, p = .044. Additional outcomes specific to the meditation group were reduced stress and increased mindfulness, F = 7.16 (2, 47), n2 = .234, p = .002. CONCLUSION: Results support the consideration of meditation training as a strategy for enhancing nursing students' attentional efficiency and other self-regulatory skills necessary for safe nursing practice. [J Nurs Educ. 2017;56(7):430-434.].

Application of the Symphonological approach to faculty-to-faculty incivility in nursing education.

The nature of ethical interactions among nurse educators is crucial in modeling ethically based relationships for nursing students. This article focuses on the issue of uncivil faculty-to-faculty relationships in nursing education and is supported by a literature review of incivility in academic settings and the experiential reflections of seasoned nurse educators. The bioethical practice-based theory of symphonology provides a new perspective for framing these reviews and reflections. This theory can facilitate decision making in difficult interactions and sustain a focus on the central agreements that are foundational to nursing education. Incivility exemplars are explored within the context of autonomy, freedom, objectivity, beneficence, and fidelity, and the integration of academia and ethics is discussed as essential to nursing education and human caring.