Impact of an intervention program with reinforcement on nursing students’ stress and anxiety levels in their clinical practices

Abstract

Several interventions have resulted in effectively reducing stress and anxiety in nursing students, however the efficacy of these interventions has only been investigated in the short term. Objetive: to determine the effect of an intervention program to manage stress and anxiety in nursing students during clinical practices with two phases. An intervention program composed of cognitive behavioral therapy and progressive muscle relaxation was developed. A control group (n = 29), an intervention group one (n = 15) that received phase I and an intervention group 2 (n = 15) that received phase I and phase II or reinforcement phase were formed. After completing phase I, significant differences were found in the state of stress and anxiety between nursing students who received this phase and those who did not and after 3 months they continued to show differences. After phase II or reinforcement phase, the inter-groups did not present significant differences between them. The intervention program contributes to provide evidence on the effectiveness of cognitive behavioral therapy and progressive muscle relaxation for stress and anxiety management in nursing students during clinical practices.