The effect of complementary therapy for hospital nurses with high stress

Abstract

Objective:This study was to examine the effect of complementary therapy (CT) for nurses with high stress levels. It was taken before we employ this technique for cancer survivors because cancer patients are a heterogeneous group that requires substantial resources to investigate.Methods:A quasi-experimental design with five groups was employed for this study. The groups were examined whether there were effects for reducing the stress and the differences in effectiveness among four intervention groups and a nonintervention group. Stress relief was measured using pulse rate and blood pressure measurements and the short form of the profile of mood states (POMS-SF). The participants practiced the therapy for 20 min twice per week for 3 weeks. A two-way factorial analysis of variance was used to analyze the data.Results:The study enrolled 98 nurses (92 female and 6 male) with a mean age of 37.3 ± 10.5 years (range: 22–60 years). Fifty-nine nurses had 10 or more years of nursing experience. There were significant differences in pulse rate and the POMS-SF scores. All groups were effective for reducing the stress level of high-stress nurses, whereas four intervention CT groups were not more effective than nonintervention group.Conclusions:The complementary therapies were useful for nurses with high stress levels. Thus, they can be used as a self-management tool for such nurses. Afterward, we will use the CT for cancer survivors to determine whether it can improve the quality of life of cancer patients.

Effectiveness of Lifestyle Health Promotion Interventions for Nurses: A Systematic Review

“…Nineteen studies provided some form of active intervention. Interventions used in these RCT studies were based on education (mostly stress coping, n = 15) [55][56][57][58][59]65,77,79,91,92,94,100,101,108,111], PA (n = 10) [115,118,120,122,124,125,[128][129][130][131], relaxation (n = 8) [167,169,170,[172][173][174][175][176], meditation/mindfulness (n = 6) [150,155,157,161,165,166], alternative approaches (n = 5) [182][183][184][185]190], diet (n = 2) [139,140], smoking cessation (n = 1) [141], and finally seven used multi-component complex interventions that included more than one element (e....…”

“…A significant decrease in depression and/or anxiety was reported in 19 studies (six studies reported decrease in solely depressive symptoms [60,93,97,118,139,177], seven in solely anxiety [164,169,171,174,178,182,187], and six in both depression and anxiety [95,143,156,157,172,176]). Of the 19 studies reporting improvements in depression and/or anxiety, 10 were RCTs [60,118,139,157,169,172,174,176,178,182], two were controlled studies [93,177] and seven were uncontrolled studies [95,97,143,156,164,171,187]. In two studies measuring both depressive symptoms and anxiety [97,139], depressive symptoms improved but anxiety did not.…”

“…Thirty-one studies included a mindfulness [62,66,69,93,126,133,135,[144][145][146][147][148][149][150][151][152][153][154][155][156][157][158][159] or meditation [87,[160][161][162][163][164][165][166] intervention (most often with the use of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) as a mindfulness program). Twenty-four studies [63,[70][71][72]86,96,105,151,160,162,[167][168][169][170][171][172][173][174][175]…”

“…Studies that improved both outcomes used mindfulness-based interventions [156,157], education-based interventions [95,143], and various relaxation methods (feet bath [172], music, [172], music-based relaxation [176]). Studies that improved depressive symptoms used education with PA (aerobics, [60]), PA with supervision (aerobics and resistance, [118]), Omega-acid pills [139], mindfulness and compassion fatigue (CF) education [93], solely education (on self-care [97]), and cognitive-behavioural sleep intervention with listening to relaxing audio before bed [177].…”

The Extent of Psychosocial Distress among Immigrant and Non-Immigrant Homecare Nurses—A Comparative cross Sectional Survey

“…Interventions that lead to a significant reduction of stress are based on mindfulness/meditation techniques [85], educational approaches like stress and coping behavior techniques [86], light therapy [87], or physical activities like yoga or walking. Depression and anxiety can be significantly reduced by the mindfulness-based cognitive therapy [88] or education-based interventions [89] or relaxation methods (e.g., feet bath [90], music [90], music-based relaxation [91]).…”