The effectiveness of virtual cognitive-behavioral group therapy on anxiety, stress, and fatigue in Coronavirus Intensive Care Unit nurses

BACKGROUND: Managing the anxiety, stress, and fatigue of health care workers is of particular importance in improving health services. In nurses, there are stressful attitudes toward the prevalence of COVID-19, which has significant effects on patient care. The study aimed study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of virtual cognitive-behavioral group therapy on anxiety, stress, and fatigue in nurses of the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit. METHODS: This quasi-experimental study was performed with pretest/post-test design with a control group. The study population consisted of nurses of Sina Hospital in Tehran, Iran. The study sample consisted of 40 nurses working in this hospital who were selected by the available sampling method and 20 people were randomly assigned to the experimental group and 20 to the control group. The experimental group participated for 10 sessions in virtual group therapy sessions through Adobe Connect software, while the control group did not receive any intervention. Data collection tools were Corona Disease Anxiety Scale (CDAS), Expanded Nursing Stress Scale (ENSS), and Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory (MFI) which were completed electronically by participants. The collected data were analyzed by multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) with SPSS software version 21 (IBM;Armonk, NY, USA). RESULTS: The results showed that there was a significant difference between the mean scores of the experimental and control groups in the post-test, and cognitive-behavioral therapy significantly reduced anxiety, stress, and fatigue in the COVID-19 intensive care unit nurses (P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Cognitive-behavioral group therapy reduced anxiety, stress, and fatigue in nurses working in intensive care units with COVID-19. It is recommended that managers and nursing officials hold virtual group therapies during the outbreak of COVID-19 in the workplace, thereby improving the level of mental health, quality of nursing services, and patient satisfaction.