Reducing Occupational Stress and Improving Coping Strategies among Nursing Home Nurses: Implementation of the BREATHE web-based program.

Objective: The purpose of this quality improvement evidence-based project is to determine the effect of a web-based stress management program called BREATHE on reducing occupational stress and improving coping strategies. This evidence-based web-based program was made available to nurses in a nursing home (NH) in the Southeastern United States who have not participated in any stress management program before.

Method: The project provided a web-based stress management educational program to the participants. The program consists of six modules that give nurses an in-depth understanding of stress, how to manage it, and develop coping strategies. The project was carried out in a NH in the Southeastern United States.

Measurements: The demographic variables, valid and reliable questionnaires of the Nursing Stress Scale (NSS), and Brief COPE were included. These were created as HIPAA/PHI-compliant surveys in Qualtrics. The pre-survey consisted of questionnaires of demographic variables, NSS and Brief COPE questionnaires while the post and follow-up questionnaires were the NSS and Brief COPE, respectively.

Results: This quality improvement EBP project demonstrated that there was a statistically significant increase in the nurse’s coping strategies while there was no significant difference in the nurses’ perception of occupational stress.

Linking Evidence to Action: Our findings suggest that although the BREATHE program did not improve occupational stress; it did significantly increase the Brief COPE scores of the participants. An increase in coping strategies suggests that the program is a vital education program to be included in the continuous education module of the NH.