Procedure
RA
Every session of the MBEC program was led only by the primary investigator and research assistants (RAs), who were community nurses specializing in LTC practice and intensively trained by the Taiwanese Mindfulness Association, receiving MBEC certification. Held in a 10-person consultation room, one trained research assistant led participants’ group activities during the entire program. Additionally, senior residents participating in the IG were closely monitored by the same RA, and after each weekly session, telephone interviews were conducted twice a week to evaluate participants’ practice of diaphragmatic breathing in their institutions. Complementary booklets with mindfulness information, written reminders from session highlights, and encouraging messages were prepared by the RA, which could be shared with their families and friends, if needed. Moreover, to ensure participant compliance with the mindfulness practices, regular evaluations were conducted during the bi-weekly telephone interviews. The participants' mindfulness practice progress and feedback were monitored closely during each session, and continual encouragement was provided to promote adherence to the practice. This close monitoring served the purpose to confirm participants engaging in the mindfulness practices as guided.All participant data were extracted from the institutional chart and face-to-face interviews with residents. Two RAs, each with a degree of Bachelor of Science in nursing, were trained to undertake data collection. The training courses included three hours of instruction in questionnaires introduction, conducting of interviews, and rating the responses. To ensure inter-rater agreement, two RAs took turns as interviewer or observer to complete 6 participants’ questionnaires from the pilot study, under the supervision of the researcher. The proportions of exact agreement of results obtained from all scales varied between 95%-100% for researcher-RA pairs. At the baseline (pretest T