A Narrative Inquiry into the Experiences of Nursing Faculty Engaging in Mindful Practices

Mindful practices have been found to decrease levels of stress, anxiety, and burnout, while enhancing resilience and coping in those who engage in them. The beneficial effects of mindfulness on improving physiological and psychological well-being are well supported within the literature. However, little has been done to learn how faculty in higher education, specifically in nursing, may experience the effect of mindful practices. The purpose of this study was to explore nursing faculty perceptions of how mindfulness may influence their teaching-learning practices as well as their daily lives. Fourteen full-time and part-time nursing faculty participated in a three-part mindfulness training workshop series delivered over 6 weeks. Upon completing the workshop series, seven of the 14 nursing faculty participated in a focus-group interview about their experiences engaging in the mindful activities during and in-between the workshops. Clandinin and Connelly’s (2000) narrative inquiry method was used to analyze participant accounts. This process entailed crafting a composite story that was sent to the participants for member checking. The composite story was analyzed using the three levels of justification: personal, practical, and social. Two significant patterns emerged: (1) Integrating mindful practices into personal life, and (2) Integrating mindful practices into the teaching and learning situations. The findings from this study contribute to the growing body of knowledge on how engaging in mindful practices may enhance the personal and the professional well-being of faculty in higher education, and thus support their teaching-learning encounters.