A research program on stress management for health professionals

Abstract

Occupational stress has been considered a serious public health problem. Nursing is a highly specialized work done under conditions of considerable pressure, therefore a stressing profession. Stress in nurses has considerable implications on their health and on the quality of their service, and it is associated with considerable economic costs. The current contribution is a report on the stress management line of research carried on presently in Portugal. The efficacy of a stress management intervention program in a nursing professionals sample is assessed through a quasi-experimental multiple baseline design in several groups of health professionals. Three studies with different groups of nurses in different hospitals have been conducted. Preliminary results show significant levels of stress reduction, as well as an improvement of the number and efficacy of the coping skills of the participants.