EFFECTS OF RELAXATION TRAINING, COMBINING MEDITATION AND GUIDED IMAGERY, ON SELF-PERCEIVED STRESS AMONG CHINESE NURSES IN LARGE TEACHING HOSPITALS IN TAIWAN, REPUBLIC OF CHINA.
Contributors: University of Texas at Austin.
Published: 1992
Number of pages: 243
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.; Health Sciences, Mental Health.; Health Sciences, Education.
Description: The purpose of this study was to test the effectiveness of relaxation training which was based on cognitive-behavioral model and was specifically focused on helping Chinese registered nurses employed in large teaching hospitals to reduce their work stress in Taiwan, Republic of China. The study design was a pretest post-test control design with two post-test points. The one hundred and thirty-seven subjects were selected randomly from three first-ranked teaching hospitals. Twenty-three subjects in one group and twenty-three in the other group for each hospital with one subject absent in the experimental group in the pretest condition of this study.

The treatment of the experimental group consisted of two sessions of relaxation technique based on Smith's cognitive behavioral model of relaxation at Week One, Week Two, and a follow-up session in the fifth week. The control group had the same sequence of sessions with a presentation by the researcher on theory analysis in nursing.

The mean scores on the Nurse Stress Checklist (NSC) and the Chinese General Health Questionnaire differed significantly between the experimental and control group in Post-test Two at Week Five. These results supported the hypotheses that the relaxation training decreased the Chinese nurse self reported work stress as measured by Nurse Stress Checklist and increased the Chinese nurse self reported psychophysiologic health as measured by Chinese General Health Questionnaire. The significant difference on means of the Chinese General Health Questionnaire in Post-test One at Week Two showed that the self reported psychophysiologic health level responded to the relaxation training earlier than to the self reported work stress level. In the treatment of relaxation, duration of practice was an important factor for the effectiveness of this treatment on the dependent variable of NSC.

It is suggested that even brief teaching of relaxation techniques may reduce work stress levels and promote a sense of psychophysiologic health in Chinese nurses who are employed in large teaching hospitals in Taiwan, Republic of China.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 53-08, Section: B, page: 4037.

Thesis (PH.D.)--THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN, 1992.

School code: 0227.