The effect of Stress Inoculation Program (SIP) on nurse's Perceived stress in psychiatric wards

Psychiatric Nurses tolerate high levels of occupational stress. So stress management programs should be developed to prevent those effects on nurses.

to determine the effect of SIP on nurses’ perceived stress in psychiatric wards.

In this randomized clinical trial 60 nurses and healthcare workers, working in Ebne-Sina Psychiatric Hospital were enrolled. They were randomly assigned between two groups based on work shift and job status. Intervention consisted of two 8-hour workshop sessions with one week interval, including SIP training. Kohn Perceived Stress Scale was used as data gathering scale, at the beginning of the study, after 2nd session and 1 month thereafter, in which the higher score indicated the lower level of stress. Data were analyzed using statistical tests including student t test, Chi-square and AVOVA with SPSS version 11.5.

The results showed that perceived stress was increased one week and one month after intervention (32/2 ± 7/4 at the beginning of the study vs. 36/4 ±7/9 one week and 40/1 ±4/9 one month after the intervention) (P<0/005). However, the average perceived stress score decreased in the control group one week and one month after the intervention compared with the beginning of the study (P=0/0000).

Since S.I.P is an affordable, effective and safe manner to improve the nurses’ perceived stress, it is proposed for reduction of job stress and as a consequence improving the quality of nursing care.