Background and Objective
One of the factors affecting the mental health of people is their job. Nursing is a source of stress due to the stress in its nature. Although the common goal of all psychotherapy approaches is to promote mental health, the results of studies have shown that there is a significant difference between them in terms of effectiveness. Therefore, the selection of the best psychological treatment to promote nurses' mental health has always been important. Nurses are among the people who have a close relationship with other people, take responsibility for human life and health, and deal with patients and their illnesses. Consequently, they constantly experience severe stress, and due to the important, sensitive, and stressful nature of their role, they are exposed to aggressive behaviors. In this respect, this job is associated with a combination of roles through technical activities, professional skills, human relations, and empathy, each of which creates a great role and responsibility for the nurse.
Materials and Methods
In this quasi-experimental study, 45 nurses working in Imam Khomeini Hospital in Songor, Kermanshah Province, Iran, in the first half of 2020 were randomly selected and divided into three groups (n=15 each). The first group participated in twelve 90-minute training sessions of cognitive-behavioral therapy (two sessions per week), and the second group took part in twelve 90-minute training sessions of emotion regulation therapy (two sessions weekly). However, the control group did not receive any treatment. The results were analyzed using a multivariate analysis of covariance. A variety of cognitive, emotional, and behavioral techniques were used in the treatment sessions. These methods were designed appropriately for the clients. Some of these techniques included challenging irrational ideas, doing cognitive tasks, practicing self-mastery, implementing problem-solving methods, recognizing stressful situations and prior preparation, learning relaxation techniques, and using force and energy.
Results
The results showed that the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy and emotion regulation therapy on the dependent variables of aggression (P=0.04), job stress (P=0.03), and general health (P=0.01) was significant. Pairwise comparison of the groups for dependent variables indicated that regarding the aggression variable, emotion regulation therapy based on emotion regulation was more effective (P=0.01), and considering the job stress variable, cognitive-behavioral therapy was more effective (P=0.04). It was also revealed that cognitive-behavioral therapy and emotion regulation therapy had the same effect on the general health of nurses (P=0.08). According to the research findings, both cognitive-behavioral therapy and emotion regulation therapy were effective in reducing the aggression, job stress, and general health of nurses. A comparison of the two groups regarding the dependent variables showed that emotion regulation therapy had a greater effect on aggression than cognitive-behavioral therapy. In the field of job stress, cognitive-behavioral therapy was found to be more effective than emotion regulation therapy. Considering the public health dependent variable, it could be inferred that both cognitive-behavioral therapy and emotion regulation therapy had almost the same effect on improving participants' general health.
Conclusion
Due to the fact that this study was performed only on nurses, there are limitations in the generalizability of the results to other occupations. In the present study, a questionnaire was used to collect information. Other methods, such as interviewing and observation, may show different results. Nurses' mental and emotional states and their fatigue might also have affected the type of provided answers by the nurses. Despite these limitations, this study was able to clarify the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy and emotion regulation therapy in reducing the aggression, job stress, and general health of nurses. The findings of this study can be used to plan to address the psychological problems of nurses and promote their mental health. Given that the problems related to nurses' work environment reduce the quality of nursing care and increase staff costs and absenteeism, and since training in effective psychological strategies decreases workplace aggression and stress and promotes nurses' health, nursing managers and officials can hold training courses on psychological therapies in the workplace, through which the quality of medical care, and consequently, client satisfaction and the quality of the healthcare system will be improved. According to the obtained results, health officials should pay more attention to the mental health of nurses and, by considering both types of therapy, provide the ground to increase cognition and promote excitement in nurses. In this study, it was found that cognitive-behavioral therapy and emotion regulation therapy had the same effect on the general health of nurses. In other words, there was no significant difference between the two treatments in the effectiveness on the general health variable. To illustrate, in cognitive-behavioral therapy, the person achieves positive results by changing their misconceptions, and in emotion regulation therapy, using adaptive emotion regulation strategies, physical and psychological conditions (e.g., reduction in anxiety and depression), socialization with other people in the workplace, and the overall health of the individual will be improved.