Impact of stress management and resilience training-clinical program on stress adjustment in clinical graded psychological nursing nurses

BACKGROUND Clinical psychological nursing plays a vital role in clinical practice, and “mental health nurses” face greater stress than general nurses. Assessing the stress responses of “psychological nurses” during the implementation of psychological care and developing corresponding stress reduction strategies will enhance their capacity for stress management. AIM To explore the effect of pressure adjustment on mental health nurses in graded psychological nursing departments of general hospitals and to enhance their stress-coping ability through the Stress Management and Resiliency Training-clinical (SMART-C) program. METHODS A total of 40 mental health nurses engaged in graded psychological nursing assessment and implementation in a hospital-wide pilot department from January 2019 to June 2020 were enrolled. The SMART-C stress management training was implemented, and stressors and psychosomatic responses were compared before and after the intervention. RESULTS Before mental health nursing participated in group training, the psychological stressor assessment results showed that “task” stress was significantly higher than “responsibility” stress, and “interpersonal” stress was close to the domestic norm. After 8 weeks of SMART-C stress management training, the “responsibility” and “task” stress decreased significantly. Before the implementation of the plan, stomachaches, headaches, and sleep issues were the three most severe physical symptoms troubling mental health nurses. The self-rated psychological stress and somatic symptom scores among the mental health nurses decreased significantly following SMART-C training. CONCLUSION SMART-C stress management training can improve stress-adjustment ability and reduce adverse somatic reactions in mental health nurses.