Stress Management Intervention among University Nursing Students Using Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy

Abstract Rational-emotive behavioural therapy (REBT) has been validated to be effective in reducing and managing work-related stress. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effects of REBT as stress management intervention among undergraduate university nursing student. The study adopted the pretest-posttest group randomized control trial design. A sample of 352 undergraduate nursing students of University of Nigeria who met the inclusion criteria with high stress scores were randomly assigned to the treatment (176 students) and control (176 students) groups. REBT was administered on the participants for 90 minutes each week for a period of twelve weeks. The students’ stress levels were measured before (baseline), at the end (post-intervention) and three months after (follow-up) the intervention using perceived stress scale (PSS). Repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to analyze the data. Results show that stress levels very high at baseline but was reduced for the treatment group post-intervention and follow-up. Year of study (F = 3.520, p = 0.011), monthly allowance (F = 3.363, p = 0.014)), sponsor (F = 3.303, p = 0.015) and residence (F = 4.619, p = 0.035) had significant impact (p < 0.05) on the treatment groups’ response to stress management while gender did not. In general, REBT significantly reduced the stress level among the undergraduate nursing students, and therefore recommended for stress management for nursing students.