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Nurse-Led Deep Breathing Intervention to Reduce Mild Anxiety in Adult Primary Care Patients in a Community Clinic in Miami-Dade County

Anisleidy Alvarez

Florida National University

MSN Capstone Project-DAX-DL01

Dr. Carmen Lazo

May 23, 2026

Nurse-Led Deep Breathing Intervention to Reduce Mild Anxiety in Adult Primary Care Patients in a Community Clinic in Miami-Dade County

Anxiety disorders are among the most common conditions among adult patients in the United States and are poorly treated in primary care. The National Center for Health Statistics reports that in 2022, about one in five of adults aged 18 and older had symptoms of anxiety, with the highest rates found in younger adults and in people living in lower-income households (Terlizzi & Zablotsky, 2024). It's not only an individual problem as anxiety also creates significant health care expenses. Anxiety disorders collectively cost the United States healthcare system tens of billions of dollars per year, with increased emergency department visits, unnecessary specialist referrals, and diminished workforce productivity (Banushi et al., 2023).

Even with this high prevalence, mild anxiety is often underdiagnosed and is not adequately treated in primary care, where most persons with anxiety symptoms seek care. Mild anxiety patients who do not receive treatment are at great risk of the symptoms escalating to more severe anxiety, poor functioning and more frequent use of emergency services. Poor anxiety regulation also has a negative impact on treatment adherence of comorbid physical conditions, increasing healthcare utilization and costs.

The purpose of this capstone project is to evaluate whether a nurse-led 2-minute deep breathing educational intervention improves self-reported anxiety symptoms among adults with mild anxiety symptoms receiving care in a community primary care clinic in Miami-Dade County over an eight-week period. The proposed intervention aims to provide a simple, low-cost, evidence-based strategy that promotes self-management and improves emotional well-being in a vulnerable population.

PICOT

The prevalence of mild anxiety is a topic of increasing clinical interest in outpatient primary care, especially in diverse, urban communities where care for mental health is scarce. The following PICOT question guides this capstone project: In adult patients presenting with mild anxiety symptoms in a community primary care clinic in Miami-Dade County (P), does teaching a 2-minute nurse-led deep breathing exercise (I), compared to no structured breathing intervention (C), reduce self-reported anxiety levels (O) over eight weeks (T)?

The population includes adults 18 years and older with mild anxiety symptoms presenting to primary care clinics in Miami-Dade County. This population often has limited access to mental health specialists and limited structured anxiety management during regular clinic visits.

The intervention is a brief 2-minute-deep breathing technique to be taught by the nurse to each patient at the clinic visit, combined with an instructional card to be printed and given to the patient for practicing at home. Controlled breathing is effective at engaging the Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS) which reduces the physiological stress response and self-reported anxiety (Magnon et al., 2021). The comparison is standard care, which means routine clinical management without any structured breathing instruction.

The expected outcome is improvement in patient-reported anxiety symptoms following implementation of the nurse-led intervention. When available, Patient-reported symptom improvement may be discussed during routine follow-up visits as part of standard patient care. May be used as part of standard clinical assessment to monitor symptom improvement. Studies have shown that brief, structured breathwork exercises show significant decrease in physiological arousal and increase of mood compared to control conditions (Balban et al., 2023). The eight weeks is a reasonable amount of time to observe regular practice effects and is convenient in a capstone course that is structured on a semester basis.

Vulnerable Population and Setting

The target population for this intervention includes adults with mild anxiety symptoms receiving care in community primary care clinics in Miami-Dade County, Florida. This population often experiences multiple social and healthcare barriers that may contribute to delayed recognition and treatment of anxiety symptoms. Many adults receiving care in community clinics may have coexisting chronic conditions, limited access to mental health specialists, and limited exposure to structured behavioral health interventions during routine primary care visits. As a result, primary care settings frequently serve as the first and sometimes only point of access for individuals seeking support for mental health concerns.

Miami-Dade County has a population that is one of the most culturally and linguistically diverse in the United States, with over 70% of the county's residents identifying as Hispanic and/or Latino (U.S Census Bureau, 2025). The stigma attached to mental health, low mental health literacy and a preference for physical explanations of distress over psychiatric explanations are commonly mentioned as cultural factors hindering help-seeking in this population (Forcén et al., 2023). Structural factors are also constraints to receiving mental health treatment: language, insurance status, cost of treatment, and transportation. The evidence shows that Hispanic and Latino adults are much less likely than adults of other races and ethnicities to receive mental health care, despite having clinically meaningful symptoms (Forcén et al., 2023).

Anxiety disorders affect nearly one in five adults nationwide and is one of the most underdiagnosed conditions in primary care, with studies showing that only approximately 20% of affected patients receive appropriate treatment (Banushi et al., 2023; National Institute of Mental Health, 2024). Social determinants of health add to vulnerability in Miami-Dade and further increase this gap. A stressful urban environment, the economic instability, stressors related to immigration, and social isolation make the situation ripe for anxiety symptoms to continue and intensify without some degree of intervention. A straightforward, low cost, culturally appropriate approach, like deep breathing led by nurses, is therefore clinically appropriate and highly needed for this population.

Proposal and Intervention Plan

The proposed intervention is a 2-minute-deep breathing exercise taught to each adult patients with mild anxiety symptoms by a trained nurse during his or her usual primary care clinic in a community clinic in Miami-Dade County. The intervention includes instruction on slow diaphragmatic breathing with controlled inhalation and prolonged exhalation, an approach shown to promote relaxation and reduce anxiety-related physiological arousal through activation of the parasympathetic nervous system .The educational session is delivered individually by the nurse at the point of care and requires minimal time to implement during routine patient education. Patients will also receive a bilingual educational handout to encourage continued practice of the breathing technique at home. (Magnon et al., 2021).

The resources required for implementation are minimal and include printed bilingual instruction cards, a standardized nurse teaching script, and a brief staff orientation session. It does not require a special setup or extra space and is very easy to do in a busy outpatient clinic.

The proposed intervention is low-cost and feasible for implementation in a community primary care clinic. Resources required include printed bilingual educational handouts for patients, estimated at approximately $50 to $75, and a brief staff orientation session incorporated into regular nursing meetings without additional staffing expenses. Because the intervention is integrated into routine patient education, no additional personnel or specialized equipment are required. The low-cost nature of this intervention supports feasibility within an eight-week academic semester timeline.

Involved in the intervention are bedside registered nurses teaching, Advanced practice nurses managing the intervention and adherence to the protocol, and the primary care physicians who identify patients during clinic visits. Clinic administrative staff support scheduling and patient education coordination and scheduling support.

The implementation timeline takes place in three phases. In week 1 and 2 staff education takes place, and all patient materials are prepared and printed. From week 3 to 6, the nurses teach deep breathing techniques to patients during their routine clinic visits, and the patients practice deep breathing at home with the deep breathing instruction card. During weeks 7 and 8, nurses will reinforce patient education and encourage continued use of the deep breathing technique during routine follow-up visits.

Theoretical Framework

This capstone project is largely based on Dorothea Orem's Self-Care Deficit Nursing Theory. Nurses in Orem's framework are educators who recognize the patient's deficits in self-care and fill that gap with knowledge and skills so that the patient can maintain his or her health independently. According to Bekaert (2025) health education is a component of nursing, which is built upon Orem's theory, in which the nurse assists individuals in meeting their self-care needs by demonstrating and facilitating their ability to cope with stress and manage their emotional state. The 2-minute-deep breathing exercise directly targets the patient's self-care deficit by offering a practical and repeatable tool that patients can use independently to help with mild anxiety symptoms outside of the clinic and at the end of the intervention period.

The intervention is implemented at the organizational level in the clinic, using Kurt Lewin's Change Theory. Lewin's model has three stages; Unfreezing, Change and Refreezing. In unfreezing, clinic staff are taught about the high prevalence of undiagnosed and unmanaged anxiety and the evidence supporting brief breathing techniques. The deep breathing teaching educational approach is introduced into regular nursing practice during the change phase. During the refreezing stage, the nurse-led deep breathing educational approach may become incorporated into routine patient education for adults with mild anxiety symptoms, supporting sustainability beyond the capstone timeline. Lewin's model is one of the most commonly used models in nurse-led change in healthcare organizations as it provides a simple structure to help guide complex changes to practice (Harrison et al., 2021). Combined, Orem's and Lewin's models guarantee the patient-centered and organizationally sustainable nature of the intervention. Orem leads direct patient care and Lewin leads institutional change for sustaining it.

Conclusion

Mild anxiety symptoms in people within primary care settings are prevalent, sometimes overlooked, and linked to diminished quality of life and heightened healthcare usage, especially among vulnerable groups facing obstacles to mental healthcare access. In culturally diverse areas like Miami-Dade County, socioeconomic determinants of health, such as restricted access to behavioral healthcare, linguistic obstacles, economic instability, and mental health stigma, may lead to postponed treatment and exacerbated symptoms. This capstone project suggests a nurse-led, 2-minute deep breathing educational intervention as a viable, cost-effective, and evidence-based approach to assist adults with mild anxiety symptoms in a community primary care clinic in Miami-Dade County. The intervention, principally informed by Orem’s Self-Care Deficit Nursing Theory and reinforced by Lewin’s Change Theory, fosters patient self-management and facilitates integration into standard nursing practice. The proposed intervention is pragmatic, achievable within an eight-week academic timeframe, and possesses the capacity to enhance patient-reported anxiety symptoms while promoting overall emotional well-being. Educational interventions in primary care may enhance quality of life and mitigate the course of anxiety symptoms when implemented early in treatment.

References

Balban, M. Y., Neri, E., Kogon, M. M., Weed, L., Nouriani, B., Jo, B., Holl, G., Zeitzer, J. M., Spiegel, D., & Huberman, A. D. (2023). Brief structured respiration practices enhance mood and reduce physiological arousal. Cell Reports Medicine, 4(1), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xcrm.2022.100895

Banushi, B., Brendle, M., Ragnhildstveit, A., Murphy, T., Moore, C., Egberts, J., & Robison, R. (2023). Breathwork Interventions for Adults with Clinically Diagnosed Anxiety Disorders: A Scoping Review. Brain Sciences, 13(2), 256. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci13020256

Bekaert, S. (2025). Repositioning health education as a core nursing function: a commentary. Journal of Research in Nursing. https://doi.org/10.1177/17449871251358627

Forcén, F. E., Flórez, M. C. V., Medina, R. B., Zambrano, J., Pérez, J. H., Rodríguez, A. M., & Santos, L. H. (2023). Deconstructing cultural aspects of mental health care in Hispanic/Latinx people. Psychiatric Annals, 53(3), 127–132. https://doi.org/10.3928/00485713-20230215-02

Harrison, R., Fischer, S., Walpola, R. L., Chauhan, A., Babalola, T., Mears, S., & Le-Dao, H. (2021). Where Do Models for Change management, Improvement and Implementation meet? a Systematic Review of the Applications of Change Management Models in Healthcare. Journal of Healthcare Leadership, 13(2), 85–108. https://doi.org/10.2147/JHL.S289176

Magnon, V., Dutheil, F., & Vallet, G. T. (2021). Benefits from one session of deep and slow breathing on vagal tone and anxiety in young and older adults. Scientific Reports, 11(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-98736-9

National Institute of Mental Health. (2024). Any Anxiety Disorder. Www.nimh.nih.gov; National Institute of Mental Health. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/any-anxiety-disorder

Terlizzi, E. P., & Zablotsky, B. (2024). Symptoms of Anxiety and Depression Among Adults: United States, 2019 and 2022. National Health Statistics Reports, 213, CS353885. https://doi.org/10.15620/cdc/64018

U.S Census Bureau. (2025). QuickFacts: Miami-Dade County, Florida. Census Bureau QuickFacts; United States Census Bureau. https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/miamidadecountyflorida/BZA115223