THE EFFECTIVENESS OF GROUP THERAPY SCHEMA ON SOCIAL HEALTH AND PSYCHOLOGICAL TOUGHNESS OF NURSES AT AFZALIPUR HOSPITAL OF KERMAN, IRAN

Increasing positive psychological strategies such as positivity, social health, tenacity, and flexibility in nurses can help their health and society. The purpose of the present study was to determine the effectiveness of group schema therapy on social health and psychosocial resilience of nurses working in Afzalipur Hospital, Kerman.

The current research was a semi-experimental pre-test-post-test study with a control group. The statistical population consisted of all nurses working in Afzalipur Hospital in Kerman in 1400. The study population of this research included 30 people from the mentioned society who were selected using the convenience sampling method and were assigned into two experimental (15 people) and control (15 people) groups using simple random method. The experimental group underwent ten sessions of schema therapy, but no action was taken on the control group. Keyes' (1988) Social Health Questionnaires and Kubasa's (1979) Psychological Toughness Questionnaires were used to collect data. Data analysis was done with descriptive tests (mean and standard deviation) and covariance analysis using SPSS version 24 software. A p-value less than 0.05 was considered significant.

In the post-test stage, there was a significant difference between the experimental and control groups (P<0.01). There was a significant difference between mean social health score in the experimental group (52.59) and control group (48.71) in the post-test. There was also a significant difference in the psychological toughness variable between mean scores of experimental (49.13) and control (40.27) groups in the post-test, which indicates the effectiveness of group schema therapy on social health and psychological toughness.

The results indicated the importance of group schema therapy on nurses' social health and psychological toughness. Therefore, it is suggested that counselors and therapists use group schema therapy to reduce the psychological problems of nurses.