Effectiveness of group counseling based on Gottman’s couple therapy on marital intimacy components of female nurses

Nurses face multiple stressors at work in the workplace and these problems are not limited to the work environment and can affect family relationships.  The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of Gatman group counseling on marital intimacy among nurses.

The experimental method was a repeated experiment with a control group. The statistical population of all nurses was 3 hospitals in Zanjan in the second half of 1397. After the first sampeling, 75 people were selected by computer sortition method and a test of the need for intimacy was introduced. The 24 subjects who obtained the lowest scores in the test were randomly assigned to receive Gutmann's couples in 60 minutes in two groups of 12 experimental and control groups. The control group did not receive any counseling until the end of the research process. After the end of the sessions, both groups received a posttest. After 1 month, a test was performed to test the stability of the effect. To analyze the data, spss20 software and repeated measures test were used to evaluate the results.

The results showed that there was a significant difference between the mean marital intimacy of the experimental group (377.08) and the control group (262.92), compared to the follow-up results for the experimental group (392) and the control group (622.08) the sustainability of the treatment effect was confirmed. It can be concluded that Gatman's group counseling with difference (11/16/11) and a significant level of 5% has promoted the marital intimacy of women in the experimental group.

The Gutmann Couple Therapy model improves the marital intimacy of nursing women. And this advice model can be used to promote marital intimacy of shift workers from different institutions and departments.