Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Occupational Stress among the Intensive Care Unit Nurses

Nurses working in the intensive care units (ICU) are faced with numerous stressors that can pose a serious threat to their self-efficacy and affect the quality of care. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) on the ICU nurses' occupational stress.

This interventional study was conducted in a hospital in southeast of Iran. The participants included 120 nurses, who were randomly assigned into the control (n = 60) and intervention (n = 60) groups. In the pre-test, the occupational stress was assessed using Osipow questionnaire. Later, the intervention group attended the CBT course conducted in six 90 minute sessions. One month after the intervention, the post-test data were collected from both groups.

The means of occupational stress and its dimensions were not significant before the intervention between the intervention and control groups (P = 0.47). The means of occupational stress and its dimensions were moderately high at pretest for all nurses. In the post-test, the stress level and all its dimensions reduced from moderate-high to moderate-low (P < 0.001), except for the physical environment dimension that remained at the moderate-high level (P = 0.32).

The findings showed that CBT was effective on the nursing stress. Therefore, CBT training is suggested in in-service training programs for nurses.