Mindfulness, Nursing Practice, & Pain

Abstract

Pain control is a significant public health concern that permeates through all demographics & diseases. Almost two-thirds of primary providers’ patients report pain, while a third of emergency department visits are due to pain (Hoffman & Sullivan, 2020). There are a deluge of therapies to slake the bite of pain, both pharmacological & nonpharmacological in nature. Psychotherapy is a subdivision of the nonpharmacological adjuncts to pain control, including a growing body of research on mindfulness-based interventions (MBI). These interventions drove the creation of the research question featured in this evidence-based practice brief: For patients experiencing pain, do mindfulness-based interventions when compared to non-mindfulness interventions reduce a patient’s reported pain? Mindfulness is described by Bishop et al. (2004) as a focus on present experiences to increase one’s awareness of their thoughts & sensations, in addition to an open-minded predisposition towards the present experience. MBIs in the context of this review are self-administered interventions that can be done independently, using pre-recorded audio to guide mindfulness practice or an application with exercises in mindfulness. This brief quantified pain using a numerical scale, although the authors often used additional inventories to measure psychological health. The purpose of this evidenced-based practice brief is to investigate the potential of MBIs in pain control. Nurses & their team can utilize this category of interventions to promote patient choice & involvement in the management of pain, in addition to potentially reducing their stress. MBIs offer an additional noninvasive therapy to patients, which can be titrated by them.