Vol. 2, Issue 1, Part A (2025)

Nursing interns frequently encounter high levels of stress during clinical rotations due to heavy workloads, complex patient care responsibilities, and evaluation pressures. Persistent stress can impair learning, clinical performance, and wellbeing, underscoring the need for simple, low-cost self-regulation strategies that can be easily integrated into busy clinical schedules. This quasi-experimental research assessed the impact of basic breathing exercises on stress reduction among nursing interns during clinical postings in a tertiary care teaching hospital. Sixty nursing interns were recruited using total enumeration and randomly allocated into an intervention group (n = 30) and a control group (n = 30). The intervention group received a brief training session on slow diaphragmatic breathing and practiced a structured 10-minute breathing protocol twice daily (before and after clinical duties) for four weeks under periodic supervision. The control group continued with routine clinical activities and institutional support without specific stress-management training. Perceived stress was measured using the 10-item Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10), and a visual analogue stress scale (VAS) was used as a supplementary measure. Physiological indicators (heart rate and systolic/diastolic blood pressure) were recorded at baseline and at the end of four weeks. Data were analyzed using paired t-tests and ANCOVA with baseline scores as covariates. The intervention group demonstrated a significant reduction in mean PSS-10 scores compared with the control group (mean change −8.1±4.2 vs. −1.3±3.9, p<0.001). VAS scores showed a similar pattern, indicating a shift from moderate-high to low-moderate perceived stress. Heart rate and systolic blood pressure decreased significantly in the intervention group, while no meaningful changes were observed in controls. Most interns reported that the breathing routine was acceptable, easy to perform in clinical settings, and improved their perceived calmness and focus. The findings suggest that basic breathing exercises are an effective, feasible, and inexpensive strategy for reducing stress among nursing interns during clinical rotations and could be incorporated into routine pre-clinical briefing and self-care training.