The effect of laughter yoga as a nursing intervention on nurses' mindfulness, proffessional resilience and self-care

This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of a laughter yoga program on the levels of mindfulness, professional resilience, and self-care among nurses. The study was designed as a quasi-experimental study with a non-randomized pretest-posttest control group. It was carried out with 72 nurses working at a state hospital who met the inclusion criteria and voluntarily agreed to participate in the research. In the pretest stage, data were collected from nurses in both the intervention group (n = 36) and the control group (n = 36) using the Personal Information Form, the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ), and the Skovholt Professional Resilience and Self-Care Inventory (SPRSI). In the posttest stage, data were obtained from both groups using the FFMQ and SPRSI. Additionally, to gather the participants' views on the program, the Laughter Yoga Post-Program Evaluation Form was administered only to the intervention group after the program. In the analysis of the data, frequencies were used for categorical variables, and descriptive statistics were used for numerical variables. Relationships between independent variables were examined using the Chi-square and Fisher's Exact Test, and differences between two independent groups were analyzed using the Paired Samples t-Test. A p-value of < 0,05 was considered statistically significant in all analyses. It was found that the mean pretest FFMQ scores of the nurses in the intervention group increased significantly compared to the control group (p < 0.05). Moreover, the mean pretest SPRSI scores of the nurses in the intervention group increased significantly in the posttest (p < 0.05). In the control group, the mean SPRSI posttest scores were significantly higher than the pretest scores (p < 0.05); however, this significant increase was observed only in the "Personal Vitality" subdimension of the SPRSI (p < 0,05), with no statistically significant changes in the other subdimensions (p > 0,05). The results of the study indicate that laughter yoga can be used as an effective practice to enhance and support nurses' levels of mindfulness, professional resilience, and self-care. This quasi-experimental study is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT06216860).