EFFECTS OF TRIPARTITE STRESS MANAGEMENT TRAINING ON BEGINNING BACCALAUREATE NURSING STUDENTS (COPING, RELAXATION, ANXIETY).
Contributors: University of San Francisco.
Published: 1986
Number of pages: 184
Subjects: Education, Guidance and Counseling.; Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: The stressful nature of the educational experience of student nurses has been repeatedly documented. The stress management programs reported in the nursing literature have not adequately incorporated multidimensional tripartite formats which include physiological, cognitive and behavioral approaches to stress management. This study investigated the effect of tripartite stress management training on the anxiety levels, reported emotions, and coping methods of beginning baccalaureate nursing students. The dependent variables were assessed using the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory Form Y-1, the Reported Emotions Survey and the Ways of Coping (Revised).

A secondary purpose of the study was to examine the relationship of self-esteem, recent life experiences and trait anxiety to the students' responses to stressors encountered during the first semester of nursing courses. The assigned independent variables were assessed using the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, Form Y-2, the Schedule of Recent Experiences, and the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventories, Adult Form.

An experimental pretest-posttest placebo group, control group design was used. The sixteen hour, two weekend tripartite stress management program included stress inoculation, assertiveness skills, guided relaxation, balancing relationships, refuting irrational beliefs, and basic communication skills.

Fifty-seven beginning baccalaureate nursing students were randomly assigned to either the experimental group (N = 19), equivalent placebo control gr p (N = 19) or waiting control group (N = 19). In order to reflect Lazarus' transactional model of stress, two pretest measurements and three posttest measurements of the dependent variables were collected.

A mixed analysis of variance with three levels of the treatment variable and five repeated measurements was performed. Data analysis revealed no statistically significant differences between treatment groups across time.

Correlation matrices for the dependent and independent variables revealed that self-esteem was negatively correlated with state and trait anxiety. Further, the negative or positive nature of an individual's emotions influenced the experience of anxiety in an inverse direction. Finally, content analysis of self report questionnaires regarding the effectivenss of the workshop demonstrated a strongly positive response by the experimental group.

The recommendations of this study include further revision of the tripartite approach and the integration of stress management concepts throughout the nursing curriculum.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 47-09, Section: A, page: 3317.

Thesis (ED.D.)--UNIVERSITY OF SAN FRANCISCO, 1986.

School code: 6019.