The Effect of Stress Management Training on Anxiety and Resilience of Emergency Medical Staff

Anxiety and stress are of the major problems in the daily lives of emergency medical staff. The experience of these stressors and their complications can reduce the work quality and the desire to continue cooperation. One of the coping strategies when confronted with these conditions is to use a resilient approach. The current study aimed at investigating the effect of stress management training on resilience and anxiety of emergency medical staff. The current quasi-experimental study was conducted on medical emergency staffs worked at 176 urban and rural emergency stations affiliated to Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran. Eight 45-minute stress management training workshop sessions were held for the intervention group. Before and after intervention, the Conner and Davidson resilience scale and the Spielberger anxiety inventory were completed for both groups. Paired samples t test, independent samples t test, the Mann-Whitney, and the Wilcoxon signed-rank test, and covariance analysis were used in SPSS version 16 for intra- and inter-group comparisons. In the current study, 82 medical emergency staffs with the mean age of 28.2 ± 3.4 years and mean work experience of 5.2 ± 2.7 years were enrolled. The results showed that stress management training in the intervention group caused a significant increase in resilience score (P < 0.001), a significant reduction in the mean state anxiety score (P < 0.001), and a decrease in the mean score of hidden/trait anxiety (P < 0.001). Stress management training can play a considerable role in reducing anxiety and increasing the resilience of medical emergency staff. Since the lower job stress can lead to providing better clinical services, it is necessary to use these useful strategies to reduce occupational stress and increase resilience in medical emergency staff.