Mindfulness in Nurse Leaders: The Relationships Between Mindfulness of Nursing Leaders and Nurse Subordinate Outcomes

Background: Challenges that nurses face in United States hospitals, including burnout, job dissatisfaction, and nursing shortage, have been documented. These burdens have been linked to poor outcomes both for nurses and for patient care. In light of these challenges, recent research has found benefits of both mindfulness and effective leadership for nurse and patient outcomes. However, to date, no studies have examined the relationships between mindfulness of leaders in the hospital setting with outcomes for subordinate healthcare professionals.

Purpose: The present research will use a tiered approach to examine the relationships between nurse leader trait mindfulness and nurse subordinate measures of trait mindfulness, burnout, job satisfaction, psychological need satisfaction, and turnover rate, at multiple levels within the hospital nursing staff hierarchy.

Methods: Participants currently employed as chief nursing officers, directors of nursing, nurse managers, charge nurses, and staff nurses will be recruited from up to five hospitals in New Orleans and Marrero, Louisiana. Surveys will be administered to participants using inventories measuring trait mindfulness, burnout, job satisfaction, and psychological need satisfaction, and nurse turnover rates per unit and per hospital overall will be collected. Relationships between these variables in nursing leaders and subordinates will be examined at each level of the nursing staff hierarchy. Descriptive and correlational statistics will be performed for the data collected. Regression analysis will be performed and variance will be assessed using ANOVA.

Results: Results are forthcoming as data will be collected over spring 2019.

Significance: Relationships found between nurse leader trait mindfulness and burnout, job satisfaction, psychological need satisfaction, and/or turnover rate in subordinate nurse populations would suggest possible benefits of mindfulness training in nurse leaders for nurse subordinates and for patient care (via lower rates of burnout and turnover for nurse subordinates). Correlations between variables could additionally suggest that (a) nurse leader traits affect their nurse subordinates’ burnout, job satisfaction, psychological need satisfaction, and turnover rates; (b) nurse leader traits affect their subordinates’ job performance through their effects on subordinate nurse outcomes; (c) nurse leader traits may indirectly affect patient care through their effects on subordinate nurse outcomes and subordinate nurse job performance.