The effect of progressive muscle relaxation exercises combined with music on stress, fatigue and coping styles in intensive care nurses

ABSTRACT Ozgundondu, B., The Effect of Progressive Muscle Relaxation Exercises Combined with Music on Stress, Fatigue and Coping Styles in Intensive Care Nurses, Hacettepe University Graduate School of Health Sciences Medical Nursing Department Master Thesis, Ankara, 2019. The aim of this randomized controlled study was to examine the effect of progressive muscle relaxation exercises (PMR) combined with music on stress, fatigue and coping styles of intensive care unit (ICU) nurses. The study was carried out with 56 ICU nurses working in Internal Medicine, Anesthesia and Coronary Intensive Care Units of Ankara Gulhane Training and Research Hospital, between 1 July 2018 and 15 January 2019. The nurses who met inclusion criteria were assigned to either an intervention or a control group through lotery with a ratio of 1:1 by the thesis advisor. Nurses in the intervention group (n=28) received once a week, 20 min. PMR combined with music for a total of eight weeks, while nurses in the control group (n=28) were given only a single time face-to-face training on stress and its effect at the begining of the study. The Personal Information Form for sociodemographic characteristics, Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) for stress, Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS) for fatigue and Brief COPE for coping styles were used for data collection. The PSS, FSS and Brief COPE were administered face-to-face to nurses in both the intervention and the control groups at the beginning of the study, and at week 4, week 8, and week 12. Stress scores of nurses in the intervention group significantly decreased at week 8, and at week 12 (p<0.05). Similarly, fatigue scores were significantly lower in the intervention group at week 8, and at week 12 compared with the control group (p<0.05). As regard to coping style, the sub-dimension scores of Brief COPE including humor, behavioral disengagement, self-distraction, positive reframing and using emotional support were significantly higher in the intervention group compared with the control group (p<0.05). Based on the results of the study, PMR combined with music is effective in decreasing stress and fatigue and improving the ways of coping styles with stress among ICU nurses and therefore, the use of this method may be recommended. Key Words: Cope with, intensive care nurses, music therapy, progressive muscle relaxation, stress.