Psychoeducational interventional programme during the COVID‐19 pandemic for nurses with severe occupational stress: A randomized controlled trial

Abstract

Background: Occupational stress is generally acknowledged as a major issue in the health sector that may have a detrimental impact on nurses' psychological and physical health, particularly during the COVID‐19 epidemic. Aim: This study evaluated the effectiveness of a psychoeducational interventional programme in decreasing occupational stress and improving coping methods among nurses during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Methods: This study used a cluster‐randomized approach. Data were collected from 80 nurses working in two public health‐care centres from May to August 2020 in Jordan. Two centres were assigned randomly to the intervention and control groups. The psychoeducational programme was delivered to the intervention group in six sessions over 6 days for 2 weeks. The collected data were analysed using SPSS through descriptive and inferential statistics. Occupational stress and coping strategies were measured. Results: Repeated‐measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicated that the degrees of occupational stress and coping strategies significantly differed between study groups over the three points of data collection. Conclusion: This psychoeducational interventional programme is a valuable noninvasive method that can improve individual coping strategies to manage stress in practice during the COVID‐19 pandemic.

Promoting Well-being: A Scoping Review of Strategies Implemented During the COVID-19 Pandemic to Enhance the Well-being of the Nursing Workforce

“…( Chen et al., 2021 ) had participants from across China involved in the intervention, not necessarily linked to any particular site or setting. Four were conducted in public health or home healthcare settings ( Alkhawaldeh, 2023 , Giordano et al., 2022 , Unger, 2022 ).…”

“…There also needs to be further research into how we can effectively measure the well-being of our nursing workforce. The studies included in this scoping review used a range of quantitative measures to determine the effectiveness of their interventions including a range of self-reported questionnaires and scales to measure: perceived stress ( Alkhawaldeh, 2023 , Haugland et al., 2023 , Hsieh et al., 2022 , Sawyer et al., 2022 ); coping strategies ( Alkhawaldeh, 2023 , Hsieh et al., 2022 ) work life balance ( Carter and Turner, 2021 ); resilience ( Haugland et al., 2023 , Muir et al., 2022 , Sawyer et al., 2022 ), burnout (Ungar, 2022) and sleep quality ( Nourian et al., 2021 ). Whilst this makes comparison between studies difficult, it also highlights a lack of consensus as to what constitutes well-being, and how poor well-being may manifest within the workforce.…”