Abstract
Abstarct: Student nurses are human beings with a calling to care. They care for people in
need, while same time ensuring that they do not neglect their own personal needs.
The student nurse needs to draw their strength from someplace in order to be
renewed, reformed and revived. Revival and reformation can empower the student
nurse in their caring practice. It is important that the student nurse is able to show
care to the person in need of care without losing themselves in the process.
Mindfulness during the training of student nurses can be a powerful tool for the
nurses to re-energise and revitalise themselves. Although mindfulness has been
shown to be influential in improving caring, the researcher has found that most of the
studies conducted on mindfulness do not include a nursing perspective. In addition,
most of the studies have been conducted abroad, and thus little is known about the
impact of mindfulness training on nursing in the South African context.
The aim of the study was to investigate and compare student nurses’ perception of
the relationship between mindfulness and caring. The researcher aimed to explain
how mindfulness can influence caring by student nurses, to ultimately provide
recommendations.
A quantitative, descriptive, contextual design was used. The researcher employed
the survey approach by making use of a questionnaire to determine the relationship
between mindfulness and caring. The population for the study comprised of student
nurses registered at a higher education institution in South Africa in their third and
fourth year of study.
Data were analysed through statistical analysis. Validity and reliability principles
were adhered to throughout the study. The researcher adhered to the ethical
considerations of beneficence, non-maleficence, autonomy, and justice. The findings
of this study suggest that there is a relationship between mindfulness and caring.
There was no clear evidence of a difference between mindfulness and caring in the
two levels of study, namely the third years and fourth years. The study made...
M.Cur. (Professional Nursing Science)