Abstract
The journal for which the submission is proposed is the International Journal of Nursing Studies. The presented study tested the practice of asking nurses who work with cancer patients to regularly gather for open discussions of their stress-related issues and coping strategies. The proposed practice was tested in a randomized controlled trial with 20 participants, and the results were evaluated by means of surveying. The effectiveness of the practice in helping nurses cope with work-related stress more successfully was confirmed. Finally, the importance of the research for the nursing career is explained.
Research Project
For submitting the research, the International Journal of Nursing Studies was chosen, which is a reputable peer-reviewed journal publishing articles on a wide range of issues in nursing. An abstract submitted to the journal should contain background, objectives, design, settings, participants, methods, results, and conclusions (“Guide for authors,” 2017).
Research Steps
Background
Working with patients who experience chronic pain or receive harsh treatment, such as chemotherapy, is a stress factor in nurses’ work. It is important for such nurses to develop successful stress-coping strategies. However, many practitioners report complications from the lack of proper addressing of the stress issues at work, which is why practices need to be developed and implemented to support nurses in their stress-coping strategies in the workplace.
Objectives
The objective of the study was to test a particular workplace practice in which nurses who work with cancer patients gather in a clinical setting to discuss their perceived stress factors and their stress-coping techniques.
Design
The study is a randomized controlled trial in which nurses who work with cancer patients in a given facility were randomly divided into two groups: one was asked to adopt the proposed practice, and the other one continued working without it.
Settings
The setting is a medical facility that provides a variety of health care services to patients round-the-clock. The hospital can accept approximately 150 patients. However, cancer patients constitute the largest portion in comparison with other groups; at the beginning of the study, there were 50 cancer patients.
Participants
The participants were 20 nurse practitioners involved in the care provided to cancer patients. All the participants were women; they had provided verbal consent for participating in the study upon being explained the objectives and methods. All the initial participants took part in the final survey.
Methods
The method of evaluating the effectiveness of the proposed practice was surveying. Before the trial, all the participants filled in questionnaires in which they assessed their current stress exposure, stress-coping strategies, and perceived effectiveness of the latter. A similar survey was conducted at the end of the two-month trial.
Results
After two months and a total of ten meetings, all the members of the intervention group reported progress in their coping with stress. In their additionally provided feedback, several nurses noted that they felt a higher level of support from their colleagues due to the practice of sharing stress-related issues in the workplace.
Conclusions
The hypothesis that the practice of discussing work-related stress and coping strategies in the workplace can help nurses cope with stress more successfully was confirmed. Further research is needed to evaluate the applicability of the proposed practice in different conditions. If the effectiveness is proved, the practice should be recommended for implementation in other facilities.
Impact on the Nursing Career
In nursing careers, stress is an important factor that is nonetheless not always properly addressed in the workplace. The integration of coping practices into the working process is a promising practice because it helps ensure that nurses, especially those who work with patients in pain, cope with their stress more successfully through receiving support from colleagues in the clinical environment. Therefore, their careers are expected to be less negatively affected by stress-related issues.
References
Guide for authors. (2017)