Middle Eastern Journal of Disability Studies

Abstract
Background & Objectives: Medical personnel are among the working groups that are involved in stress and psychological issues and are known as the group exposed to COVID–19. It can cause certain problems. Increased workload, physical exhaustion, inadequate personal equipment, patient transfers, and the need to make difficult ethical decisions regarding care provisions may significantly impact these medical staff's physical and psychological well–being. Caregiving pressure was first introduced in the literature by Sainsbury and Grad in 1966. They defined pressure as any adverse effect of caring for sick individuals on caregivers. This concept was later expanded to include the psychological, physical, social, and financial problems that caregivers experience in this role. Anxiety sensitivity is also a potential vulnerability factor for mental health problems, including COVID–19 anxiety. Nurses seem to not pay much attention to their lifestyle due to professional concerns. Therefore, this research aims to determine the effectiveness of lifestyle training focused on mindfulness on caregiving pressure and anxiety sensitivity of caregivers in the Corona Ward of medical centers.
Methods: This quasi–experimental study employed a pretest–posttest design with one control group and one experimental group. The statistical population of this research included all nurses working in the Corona Care Department of Baqiyatullah Hospital in Tehran City, Iran, in 2022. The sample size was determined using G*Power software so that the study has the necessary power to detect a difference of at least 1 unit in the amount of theism and religious orientation between the experimental group and the control group. Assuming the probability of the Type I error is 5%, the probability of the Type II error is 20%, and a standard deviation of 0.9, the number of samples equals about 15 people for each group. Therefore, among the statistical population, 30 eligible volunteers were included in the study and were randomly assigned to the experimental and control groups (each group included 15 people). The inclusion criteria were as follows: caregivers of the Corona Ward of Baqiyatullah Hospital, at least having a diploma level of education, and non–participation in other therapeutic interventions simultaneously. The exclusion criteria were as follows: absence of more than three sessions and non–compliance with the rules of group therapy. This research observed ethical standards including obtaining informed consent, guaranteeing privacy and confidentiality. Also, when participating in the research, the participants were free to withdraw from the research at any time and provide individual information. They were assured that the information would remain confidential, which was fully respected. The Anxiety Sensitivity Questionnaire (Floyd et al., 2005) and the Caregiver Burden Inventory (Novak and Guest, 1989) were completed by both groups at pretest and posttest. The experimental group received lifestyle training focused on mindfulness in twelve 90–minute sessions once a week. The control group received no treatment program. Data analysis was carried out in two parts: descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. At the level of descriptive statistics, frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation were calculated, and at the level of inferential statistics, univariate analysis of covariance was performed. Data analysis was done using SPSS software version 24, and the significance level of the tests was considered to be 0.05.
Results: The research findings showed that the effect of lifestyle education focused on mindfulness was significant (p<0.001) on caregiving pressure and anxiety sensitivity of caregivers in the Corona Ward of medical centers in the experimental group.
Conclusion: Based on the results obtained, lifestyle training focused on mindfulness can improve the psychological condition of the caregivers of the Corona Ward of Baqiyatullah Hospital.