This quantitative, before-after study was developed to evaluate the usefulness of an online mindfulness practices program to help nursing professionals deal with stress in the challenging context of the COVID-19 pandemic through the assessment of perceived stress, anxiety and depression, levels of mindfulness, and participants’ satisfaction with the program. Eligible participants were assessed at baseline to receive the online mindfulness training program for eight weeks and were appraised again at the end of the program. Standardized measures of perceived stress, depression, anxiety, and one-dimensional and multidimensional mindfulness were performed. Participant satisfaction was also studied. Adherence to treatment was 70.12%. The perceived stress, depression, and anxiety scores were significantly lower after the intervention. The mindfulness measure increased significantly, as well as the sense of well-being and satisfaction with life, study, and/or work. The participants showed high satisfaction with the program and would recommend it to other professionals. Our results indicate that mindfulness-based interventions represent an effective strategy for nurses in the face of the need for self-care with mental health and mechanisms that guarantee the sustainability of their capacities to continue exercising health care.

Background: Anxiety and stress are common mental health conditions reported by university workers. Practices of mindfulness represent one promising approach as an effective and feasible means to reduce stress, improve mental health and promote well-being; however, there are no clinical trials that have combined long-term stress biomarkers (hair cortisol) and psychometric assessments in a sample of university workers. Objective: This study investigated the effectiveness of a mindfulness-based program on long-term stress, by measuring hair cortisol concentration and perceived stress and anxiety among workers who were undergoing high levels of stress. Method: We conducted a randomized clinical trial at work among the employees of a public university. We compared a group that received the eight-week mindfulness intervention with the wait list group who received no intervention. Results: A total of 30 participants were included in the study, with n = 15 subjects in the intervention group and n = 15 in the control group. Hair cortisol, perceived stress and anxiety significantly reduced after the intervention compared to the control group, which had no appreciable decline in the measured variables. Conclusion: This clinical trial showed the effectiveness of a mindfulness program on mental health psychometric measures (perceived stress and anxiety) and on a long-term stress biomarker (hair cortisol). It can be concluded that an eight-week mindfulness program could be implemented as an effective strategy to reduce stress biomarkers (hair cortisol) as well as perceived stress and anxiety, improving the mental health of university workers.

Objective: to analize the relationship between depression and work stress in nursing professionals with technical education level of a teaching hospital in a city of the state of São Paulo.Methods: a cross-sectional study was carried out with 310 nursing technicians and nursing assistants, randomly selected. The outcome analyzed was the report of depression and its relationship with high levels of work stress, measured using the Job Stress Scale. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression were performed.Results: the prevalence of depression in this study was 20%, and it was more expressive in females, aged over 40 years, living without a partner and in smokers. The chance of depression was twice as high among professionals showing high levels of work stress, even after multiple regression adjusting.Conclusion: depressive symptoms were strongly associated with high stress levels among nursing assistants and nursing technicians, evidencing a problem to be considered along with the planning of specific intervention programs for this population, as well as the need for better cases management by the supervisors.

This is a quantitative, descriptive and exploratory research, with cross-sectional design that investigated the stressors experienced by nursing technicians working in general hospital and identified the coping strategies most used by them. The sample contained 310 participants. A sociodemographic questionnaire and the Ways of Coping Scale were used. For the analysis we used descriptive statistics and calculated the Cronbach's alpha. 60% of professionals used the strategies focused on the problem; 57.4% attributed their stress to working conditions, 26.8% to relationships in the workplace, 5.5% to the lack of reward at work and only 0.6% to problems personal. We conclude that strategies focused on the problems were the most used, indicating an approximation of the stressor in order to fix it. The identified stressors indicate the need for planning, stimulating and recognizing nursing professionals.

Analizar el efecto entre el uso de Facebook, el estrés percibido y el consumo de alcohol en jóvenes. Fue realizado un estudio descriptivo, correlacional y transversal. La muestra fue de 110 jóvenes universitarios jóvenes universitarios de Nuevo León, México. Muestreo probabilístico. Se utilizó una Cedula de Datos Personales y Prevalencias del Consumo de Alcohol, Cuestionario de Identificación de Trastornos por Uso del Alcohol (AUDIT), Cuestionario de Uso de Facebook y la Escala de Estrés Percibido. Se contó con la aprobación del Comité de Ética en Investigación. Se encontró que el 6,4% de los jóvenes mencionaron que el uso de Facebook ha afectado su consumo de alcohol. El visualizar anuncios con contenido de alcohol en Facebook se relacionó con el consumo de alcohol (rs = 0,204, p < 0,05). Las horas que se utiliza Facebook se relacionó con el estrés percibido (rs = 0,189, p < 0,05). Finalmente se observó que existe un efecto significativo entre las horas y días de uso de Facebook, el estrés percibido por los jóvenes, la edad y el sexo sobre el consumo de alcohol perjudicial en los jóvenes universitarios (R²= 30,9%, p = 0,003). Por lo tanto es importante y necesario el considerar las redes sociales como una variable importante para ser incluida en futuras intervenciones en salud mental.