The effectiveness of interventions and behaviour change techniques to reduce stress in student nurses: A systematic review.

BACKGROUND

Student nurses experience stress leading to poor health and course attrition (Lovegrove, 2018).

OBJECTIVES AND DESIGN

This systematic review aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions and 'behaviour change techniques' (BCTs) to reduce student nurse stress. BCTs are active components of interventions that are observable, replicable, irreducible and designed to change behaviour (Michie et al., 2013).

DATA SOURCES

Thirteen databases were searched from inception to May 2020.

REVIEW METHODS

The interventions were classified according to their target: 'stressors', 'coping', 'cognitive reappraisal' or a combination of these (Lazarus and Folkman, 1984). BCTs were coded using the BCT taxonomy: a hierarchical framework of BCTs (Michie et al., 2013).

RESULTS

28 interventions reported in 23 articles were included in the review. A positive effect was identified in 22 interventions. There were no studies addressing the stressors in isolation and the interventions targeting stressors in combination with coping (n = 1) or cognitive reappraisal (n = 1) found no significant effects. In contrast, 74% of those targeting coping alone (n = 14/19), 100% of those addressing coping and cognitive reappraisal together (n = 4/4) and 66% addressing all three targets together (n = 2/3) were successful. The most common BCTs provided students with information and skills relating to stress management, with 18/21 being successful >50% of the time.

CONCLUSIONS

Overall, most interventions aimed to teach students skills to cope with stress, with the majority having a short-term effect. However, as some interventions and BCTs were infrequently used or poorly described and all studies had a medium-high risk of bias, there is a need for longitudinal high-quality studies.