EFFECTIVENESS OF SO HUM MEDITATION IN REDUCING THE LEVEL OF ACADEMIC STRESS AMONG FIRST SEMESTER B.SC. NURSING STUDENTS

Background:. Human beings have a natural power to cope with and manage with the stressful situations.Among all professions, nursing profession is considered as highly stressful for students. Nursing students face various stressful situations in their college life, like time pressure, excessive workload, clinical duties, long college hours, examinations and results. Some of the relaxation techniques that can help to reduce stress are guided imagery, mantra meditation, yoga and breathing exercises. Objectives: To evaluate the effectiveness of So hum meditation among the first semester B.Sc. Nursing students at Government College of Nursing, Pauri, and Uttarakhand. Materials and Methods:Quasi-experimental approach with time series design was used in the study. Purposive sampling technique was used to collect data from 65 first semester B.Sc. Nursing students. The subjects were given So hum meditation for approximately 15-20 minutes, once a day for four weeks. Pre-test, Post- test I and post-test II were conducted by using Academic Stress Rating Scale. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to assess the data. Result: Mean age of study participants was 31.9±7.77. Results revealed that a reduction in Academic stress with a mean difference (MD) of22.89, f value 47.56 following four weeks of So hum meditation was found significant at p = 0.001. Conclusion: This study concluded that So hum meditation is effective in reducing Academic stress among first semester B.Sc. nursing students.