PERCEIVED STRESS AND TRAIT MINDFULNESS LEVELS AMONG HEALTHCARE EDUCATION FACULTY

Increasing stress levels among faculty in healthcare professions is a rising problem that can lead to poor health and well-being. Heightened academic demands and the COVID-19 pandemic have contributed to higher stress levels. Coping strategies like mindfulness are beneficial to counteract stress, yet few studies have investigated the relationship between perceived stress and trait mindfulness levels among physical therapy faculty. The purpose of this quantitative, non-experimental study was to determine the statistical relationship between perceived stress and trait mindfulness levels among all full-time physical therapy faculty. A secondary purpose of this study was to determine the statistical relationship between perceived stress and trait mindfulness levels among full-time Doctor of Physical Therapy faculty and full-time physical therapist assistant faculty. The theoretical framework of this study was the transactional theory of stress and coping. Purposive sampling included 123 full-time physical therapy faculty participants recruited from the American Physical Therapy Association Academy of Education listserv. Pearson's correlational coefficient and independent samples t-test were the statistical tests used to analyze data. Results indicated a statistically significant negative correlation between perceived stress and trait mindfulness among all full-time physical therapy faculty and no significant difference in the variables of full-time Doctor of Physical Therapy faculty compared to full-time physical therapy assistant faculty. The findings suggest that emotion-focused coping strategies, such as mindfulness, may be helpful to incorporate into professional training and development to reduce physical therapy faculty stress levels, thereby optimizing health and well-being.