Nursing Stress and Thought Control in a Multiperspectival Interpretive Phenomenological Analyses from the United Kingdom, United States and Switzerland

Abstract

Background. Nurses constitute a worldwide community of human resources committed to critical care. They are exposed to stress and intruding thoughts so they are at the risk of poor performance. The study aimed to ask experts about how can nurses manage stress effectively in Asian developing countries.

The aim. To explore stress management skills for nurses to be applied in developing Asian countries through the personal lived experience of experts from developed countries. Multiperspectival Interpretive Phenomenological Analyses (MIPA) are performed case by case and across the participants to establish convergence and divergence.

Methods. This experiential exploratory descriptive qualitative study was carried out by conducting semi-structured interviews with experts residing, educated, and professionally practising in the United States of America, United Kingdom, and Switzerland, with a purposing sample of 11 stress experts who were subjected to interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). The current study uses HyperResearch software v.4.5.4 and also uses qualitative criteria (Lincoln & Guba, 1985) to increase data rigour and the Graneheim and Lundman method to analyse content (Graneheim & Lundman, 2004).

Results. The research data showed 102 codes, 4 experiential statements, and 15 personal experiential themes/subcategories. Strategies for stress management and thought control include the practice
of mindfulness and meditation through mindfulness-based stress reduction courses, mindfulnessbased cognitive therapy courses; and the conduction of mindfulness-based organisational education on a larger scale. Nurses can beneft from thought labelling, and cognitive defusion to challenge automatic thoughts. Systematically, nursing management can improve through intervision, on-the-job support, and balance of power gradient. Nurses must adopt stress relief strategies such as practicing self-compassion, yoga, the method of active noticing, rational emotive behaviour skills, afrmations, and acceptance.

Conclusion. Nurses face stress in daily life. Continuous and practical methods of stress management are important and contribute to stress reduction for them. It is essential for nurses to practice mindfulness, meditation, thought control, and stress relief processes to work optimally.

Keywords: stress management, thought control, nursing, psychology, qualitative.