Abstract
Breast cancer is the second leading cause of death in women and leads to decreased quality of life owing to increased anxiety, depression, fatigue, stress, and a lack of social support. The American Society for Integrative Oncology ranks mindfulness-based interventions (MBI) as the most highly recommended integrative interventions known to decrease anxiety, depression, and fatigue, and improve the quality of life of breast cancer patients. However, they were not regularly used or recommended by support group facilitators of the project. A quality improvement project was implemented with the five support group facilitators to address this deficit. The purpose was to determine if MBI education increases facilitator knowledge, perceived MBI importance, sharing, and use and recommendation rates compared to baseline using educational tools and assessments developed for the project, and a free, readily available, flexible, secular MBI application called “UCLA Mindful”. Assessments were made before education (Pre), following education (Post), and one month later (PP). Pre to Post and Pre to PP facilitator perceived MBI knowledge increased by 97.7% and 125.6%, the perceived importance of MBI, knowledge sharing, use, and recommendation increased by 99% and 124%, use of UCLA Mindful increased by 160% and 200%, and 60% of the facilitators reported an increase in support group quality of life from “satisfactory” to “good” (Pre to PP). Despite limited participants, results suggest the improvement may have broader beneficial applications and that support group facilitators should receive MBI training, including recommending MBI app use to improve quality of life in breast cancer.
Sigma Membership
Non-member
Type
DNP Capstone Project
Format Type
Text-based Document
Study Design/Type
Quality Improvement
Research Approach
Quantitative Research
Keywords:
Mindfulness-Based Interventions, Mindfulness-Based Applications, Mindfulness-Based Education, Mindfulness, Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy, Breast Cancer, Anxiety, Depression, Mental Depression, Stress, Psychological Stress, Quality of Life, Well-Being
Advisor
Beth Gleason McManis
Degree
DNP
Degree Grantor
Northern Arizona University
Degree Year
2026
Recommended Citation
Schindele, Deborah, "Mindfulness-Based Interventions: Improving Quality of Care in Breast Cancer" (2026). Group: Northern Arizona University School of Nursing, DNP Doctoral Papers. 46.
https://www.sigmarepository.org/group_nausn_dnp/46
Rights Holder
All rights reserved by the author(s) and/or publisher(s) listed in this item record unless relinquished in whole or part by a rights notation or a Creative Commons License present in this item record. All permission requests should be directed accordingly and not to the Sigma Repository. All submitting authors or publishers have affirmed that when using material in their work where they do not own copyright, they have obtained permission of the copyright holder prior to submission and the rights holder has been acknowledged as necessary.
Review Type
None: Degree-based Submission
Acquisition
Self-submission
Date of Issue
2026-05-15
Full Text of Presentation
wf_yes
Description
This study discusses mindfulness-based interventions for decreasing anxiety, depression, fatigue, and stress, and improving quality of life in breast cancer patients.