Title : Counseling for distress tolerance, interpersonal relationship and mindfulness among nursing students: A randomized control trial
Abstract:
About 40 million people in India come under the age of 15 to 35 years, Indian youth - most vulnerable group - psychological problems (Aminashaji 2011). WHO has estimated that stress-related disorders will be one of the leading causes of disability by the year 2020. Levels of stress are higher for health professionals than for other workers. Nursing students experience higher levels of stress than medical, social work and pharmacy students (Beck, et al., 1997). Studies from the United Kingdom and India have reported increasing levels of stress among nursing students (Reghuram R, 2014). Nursing students face not only academic stress but stress at work during their training period. Some of the most common stressors are time pressures, workload, making decisions, continuous changes and economic mistakes at work. It is important for nursing educators to know the prevalence of psychological distress among nursing students in a view to develop and incorporate some strategies to deal with the distress. My study is aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of counseling on distress tolerance, Interpersonal relation and Mindfulness among nursing students. A quantitative research approach was used in this study. The study was conducted in selected nursing colleges of Indore. The accessible population was B.Sc. nursing first year students meeting the inclusion criteria. Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10) was used to screen the students with distress. Subsequently, Distress Tolerance Scale, Interpersonal Competency Questionnaire, Rathus Assertiveness Scale and Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS) were applied. Permission was obtained for all the tools both using and translating the tools. Linguistic validation was done. Tools applied in the study were tested for normality and found normally distributed. Multistage sampling was done. Two stage sampling, in first stage two colleges were selected through convenient sampling, Simple random sampling was used to select 70 nursing students. K10 was applied to screen the students in distress. Students were screened and divided into 3 strata i.e. Mild, Moderate and Severe distress. Again Simple random sampling was used to allocate students into experimental and control group. In experimental & control group from all three strata i.e. mild, moderate & severe through simple random sampling technique (lottery method) was used to select a sample size of 9 students in each group (out of 42). In the experimental group a Pretest was conducted at the initial phase and then sessions were conducted for 6 weeks, everyday for 45-60 minutes excluding Sundays. Post test assessment was done using the same tools. For control group no intervention was initiated. Only a pretest at initial phase and post test after 6 weeks using the same set of questionnaires was conducted. Counseling, through eclectic approach was incorporated by skill training in groups. Results revealed that in pretest both the groups had mild to severe level of distress. Study also evaluated the effectiveness of counseling in all the domains i.e. distress tolerance level, Interpersonal relationship, assertiveness skills and mindfulness.
Takeaway Notes:
• This study shows that there is a high prevalence of distress among nursing students.
• This issue necessitates attention of all the nursing leaders to address the issue on a priority basis.
• If the problem is addressed initially itself and proper training imparted to nursing students to deal or cope with the problem, they can, not only manage stress better but can utilize these skills, lifelong.
• Each college should have a counselor in the college faculty.
• Improves Mindfulness, Distress tolerance skills and interpersonal Relationship skills.
