Interventions aimed at reducing work-related stress for nurses may lead to improvements in how people cope with stress up to a year later, according to Dutch researchers at Amsterdam University Medical Centre.
Investigators examined 117 studies of the effects of different interventions on stress alleviation, which involved more than 11,000 healthcare workers worldwide.
They considered interventions focusing attention either on the experience of stress, or away from the experience of stress, such as cognitive behavioral therapy, assertiveness training, coping and communication skills, meditation, yoga, massage, acupuncture and more. The goal was to determine whether these interventions helped reduce stress.
Study participants were experiencing low to moderate levels of stress and burnout, as well as depression, anxiety, impaired concentration and emotional and relationship problems. Results showed that reducing healthcare workers’ stress “may be beneficial for the healthcare workers themselves and it may spill over to the patients they care for, and the organizations they work for,” said Sietske Tamminga, PhD, lead author and assistant professor in public and occupational health at Amsterdam University Medical Centre. “Employers should not hesitate to facilitate a range of stress interventions for their employees.”
Full findings appeared in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.
Previous studies have shown that stress reduction activities have led to greater work satisfaction and productivity, as well as improved patient outcomes.
From the July/August 2023 Issue of McKnight's Long-Term Care News
