The effects of cognitive-behavioral stress management on nurses' job stress

Background: Job stress is a prevalent and costly problem in different working conditions. Stress can degrade care quality in nurses and elevate their willingness to leave the job. This study aimed to determine the effects of cognitive-behavioral stress management on nurses' job stress. Materials and Methods: In this quasi-experimental study with a control group, 40 nurses from the educational hospitals in Birjand who had completed a job stress questionnaire with a score of more than 100 were selected and randomly allocated to two groups. The intervention group underwent eight 2-hour sessions training of cognitive-behavioral stress management (one session per week), whereas the control group had no such training. Two months after the training, the two groups completed the hospital job stress questionnaire again. The data were analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (version 19) by Chi-square, Fisher exact test, independent t-test, and paired t-tests at 0.05 significance level. Results: Stress mean score and standard deviation before and after the intervention were 3.48 (0.22) and 2.8 (0.2) in the intervention group and 3.48 (0.21) and 3.56 (0.2) in the control group, respectively. In the intervention group, the overall mean scores of stress and its dimensions significantly decreased after the intervention (P < 0.05). Conclusions: Given the significant decrease in the nurses' stress using cognitive-behavioral stress management, this approach can be suggested to be taught to nurses in hospitals in order to decrease their stress and increase their efficiency