Effect of Aromatherapy with Rosa Damascena Essential Oil on Nurses' Occupational Stress in the Emergency Department: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Abstract

Background: Emergency personnel are frequently exposed to high-risk physical and psychological factors that lead to increased occupational stress. Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the effect of aromatherapy with rosa damascena essential oil on nurses' occupational stress in the emergency department. Methods: This randomized controlled trial was conducted among sixty nurses in the trauma center of Besat Hospital, Tehran. The participants were selected by the convenience sampling method, and then randomly assigned to the aromatherapy with essential oil of Rosa damascena and control groups. Intervention in the experimental and control groups consisted of inhalation cotton swabs impregnated with two drops of essential oil of 40% Rosa damascena (Gole Mohammadi) and cotton soaked with two drops of distilled water as a placebo for 2 minutes, respectively. Nurses' stress level was assessed by the Nursing Stress Scale before and after the intervention. To analyze the data, independent t-test, paired t-test, and ANCOVA were performed in SPSS, version 22. Results:The mean age of the nurses was 29.07 ± 5.495 years, and the majority of them had a bachelor's degree. The results of this study showed that stress scores in the experimental group were lower than those in the control group after the intervention (p<0.0001). The effect size was -1.5, which was large and desirable. Nurses' occupational stress scores in the experimental group diminished significantly after the intervention (p=0.012). Conclusion:It is recommended to use complementary therapies such as aromatherapy with rose essential oil to reduce occupational stress in nurses. Further studies with larger sample sizes and in other occupational groups are recommended.

Rosa Damascena mill for treating adults' anxiety, depression, and stress: A systematic review and dose–response meta‐analysis of randomized controlled trials

“…Out of the five included studies that measured stress, the data of four studies that used DASS‐21 (Bikmoradi et al, 2021; Dehkordi et al, 2017; Noorian et al, 2020) and the nursing stress scale (Farsi et al, 2021) were sufficient for pooled analysis. The remaining study applied stress system activity indicators (neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio and blood cortisol levels) (Ghoshooni et al, 2017).…”

The effectiveness of aromatherapy on stress management in nurses: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

“…Trial sample sizes ranged from 32 to 110 individuals, and all were randomized controlled trials. Four studies were conducted in Iran [22,23,28,31], two in Korea [21,29], one in Norway [27], one in Brazil [25], one in Turkey[26], one in China [30]. The mean age of the participants ranged from 18 to 39 years.…”

“…The dose of essential oil ranged from 2 to 5 drops, and the concentration varied from 2-100%. Aromatherapy delivery modalities included inhalation [21,22,23,24,26,28,29,30,31], with three using gauze or cotton inhalation and three using hanging from the chest, whereas two studies [25,27] used aromatherapy massage. The duration of each intervention ranged from 10 minutes to3 months, with eight of the studies having a duration of > 1 day.…”

“…Among these included studies, the outcome assessment tools differed. In terms of primary outcomes, two studies applied the Norwegian version of Cooper's Job Stress Questionnaire(CSQ) [22,27], two studies applied the Stress and Anxiety Subscale (DASS-42) [28,31], and one study applied the Work Stress Scale (WSS) [25], one study applied the Personal Information Questionnaire(PSS) [26], one study applied the Nursing Stress Scale (NSS) [23], one study applied the Job Stress-Related Symptoms(JSS) [24], one study applied the Visual Analog Scale (VAS) [21], one study applied the Park Job Stress Scale [28]. Regarding secondary Outcomes, Four studies [21,25,26,29]were conducted to measure blood pressure or heart rate.…”

“…Regarding random sequence generation, six studies [21,22,23,26,27,29]describe speci c methods for random assignment. Of these, four [21,22,29]reported the random number table method, two [26,27]reported the lottery method, and one [23]reported the coin toss method.…”