Effects of Group Acceptance and Commitment Therapy -Based Training on Job Stress and Burnout among Pediatric Oncology and Special Diseases Nurses

Background: Job stress is defined as the harmful physical and emotional responses happening when the requirements of the job do not match the capabilities, resources, or needs of the worker. Some jobs such as nursing are stressful. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of group acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) on job stress and burnout among pediatric oncology and special diseases nurses. Materials and Methods: This interventional study was conducted on sixty nurses in special disease and oncology wards who then were assigned randomly in two group of experimental and control. During four sessions lasting for one and half, the experimental group received communication skills of ACT based on Bond and Hayes model and the control group received just communication skills. Three months after the main training in the follow-up stage, experimental and control group had two sessions lasting for 1.5 hours. During these sessions, previous contents were reviewed. Before and after the interventions and during follow up stage, the participants completed Osipow&rsquo;s Occupational Stress Inventory and Maslach and Jackson Job Burnout Inventory. Data analysis was done using repeated measures analysis of variance. Results: Group training based on the ACT not only decreased total job stress (p<0.0001) but also diminished job stress factors, including role overload (p<0.015), role ambiguity (p<0.047), role boundary (p<0.011), and responsibility (p<0.0001). Besides, ACT-based training decreased self-decreasing achievement (p<0.007). Conclusion: Group ACT-based training can decrease job stress but had no considerable effect on job burnout.