Abstract
Mental health nursing is a stressful specialty, and mental health nurses have a high risk for clinical burnout syndrome. Our aim was to examine the effectiveness of a Stress Management-Empowerment Program for psychiatric nurses designed to alleviate their stress. Psychiatric nurses (n=30) were randomly assigned to the stress management empowerment program course group (intervention group) or control group. This program consists of a total of four sessions over 6 weeks, each of which takes two hours. A lecture was given during thirty minutes of each two-hour session. At the first session, we gave the participants information on stress, stress of specifically psychiatric nursing and stress management; at the second session, we provided information on cognitive-behavioral therapy and cognitive retraction; at the third session, we provided information on assertive communication; and at the fourth session, we provided problem-solving therapy. The remaining ninety minutes of each two-hour session involved group therapy using a problem-solving process. Participants replied to questionnaires about their stress and their mood before and after their participation and 1 month after the intervention. The results indicated that the psychiatric nurses' degree of mental health, as a primary outcome measured with K6, did not show significant improvements immediately after the intervention and 1 month after the intervention. However, the intervention group had significantly lower 'Tension-Anxiety' and 'Depression-Dejection' of POMS score immediately after the intervention (ANCOVA, P=.003, .008, respectively), and lower Anger-Hostility' of the POMS score at 1 month after the intervention (ANCOVA, P=.046).
