Mindfulness, Spiritual Intelligence and Mental Health among Nursing Faculty Members

Abstract

Background: Nursing faculty members play a crucial role in shaping not only the mindset of their students but also the upcoming generation and nations. However, they are challenged with different stressors that can jeopardize their mental health and thereby their students. Therefore, paying attention to their mental health, awareness with their inner private world, and the meaning of life could virtually provide a comprehensive template that would reinforce credibility in their holy message and move the nursing profession forward. Objective: This study aimed to identify the relationship between mindfulness, spiritual intelligence and mental health among nursing faculty members. Settings: The study was conducted at the three different nursing faculties in Egypt namely, Alexandria, Damanhur and Matrouh. Subjects: the data was collected from 351 nursing faculty members who had at least one year of academic experience and willing to participate in the study. Tools: Five tools were used including; Socio-demographic Characteristics questionnaire, The Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS), Spiritual Intelligence Self-Report Inventory (SISRI-24) and Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (WEMWBS). Results: More than half of the studied subjects demonstrated moderate level of mindfulness (53%) and nearly half of participants (47%) had high level of spiritual intelligence. Moreover, more than half of them (51.6%) experienced moderate level of mental wellbeing. A significant positive correlation between mindfulness spiritual intelligence and mental wellbeing among the studied subjects (r=0.498, P<0.001, and r =0.500, P<0.001, respectively). Moreover, the spiritual intelligence was significantly positively correlated with mental wellbeing (r=0.544, p <0.001). Conclusion: The present study concluded that mental health was proved to be the independent predictor of mindfulness, spiritual intelligence among the studied subjects. Recommendations: Given the robust relationship between the measured variables mandates the need of the academic institution to devote their effort to improve their nursing faculty members' mental health.