Improving patient care might need to start with nurses caring for themselves. Kent state is looking to change its nursing curriculum to reduce stress and burnout.

Last year, approximately 30 accelerated nursing students participated in the first Care for the Caregiver program. The program had students attend a monthly class and weekly webinars, and then tracked their progress through the use of journals.

Tracey Motter, senior undergraduate program director for the College of Nursing, said Kent State is planning a three-site study next semester, using Ursuline College and Cleveland State.

The study will replicate the previous study but on a larger scale.

Michelle Bozeman, project coordinator for the self-care nursing consortium, said the first research study showed trending data for improvement in mindfulness and a reduction in perceived stress.

There will be 30 students participating from Kent State, 50 from Ursuline and 80 from Cleveland. The students from Cleveland State will be used as the control group for the study, the group that won’t learn stress-relief methods.

“I think (having two other schools involved) will really enhance the study,” Motter said. “We’ll be able to see if these methods really do have an effect on stress.”

Motter said that nurses are on the front line of patient care, and they need to be taught different modalities that can reduce stress such as meditation, breathing techniques, aromatherapy or yoga.

But the self-care and wellness methodology won’t get integrated into the curriculum for all nursing students until the pilot projects are completed and shown to be effective.

Bozeman said other organizations like Summa and University hospital are starting to focus on employee wellness and the use of integrative therapies at the bedside.

“It gives students a good foundation and tools for self-care, it makes their skill-set more marketable in the current health care market and ultimately it will change how nursing is practiced,” Bozeman said.

Motter said the burnout rate in nursing is very high and one way to help reduce the rate may be to teach nursing students to care for themselves.

“Being a nurse at the bedside is very stressful,” Motter said. “You are carrying everybody’s emotional baggage. How do you walk out the door and maintain a quality of life? Mindfulness provides that because it teaches you to live in the moment and appreciate what is going on.”

Bozeman said that the change in curriculum would not mean students taking another class. Instead, the material would be integrated into the classes they already take.

“The issue with nursing is, we are caregivers, but we often forget to care for ourselves,” Motter said. “It has almost been looked upon negatively to care for yourself, but how can you care for somebody if you don’t have anything left?”

Contact Justine Stump at [email protected].