The Effectiveness of Virtual Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Based on Compassion in Perfectionism and Death Anxiety in Nurses with Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Traits: A Quasi-Experimental Study

Nurses with personality traits of perfectionism and death anxiety are at psychological risk. This research aimed to determine the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy based on compassion on death anxiety and perfectionism of nurses with obsessive-compulsive personality traits working in the Corona ward.

The present study was quasi-experimental with a pre-test, post-test, and one-month follow-up plan, and a control group. The statistical population included the nurses of social security hospitals in Tehran and Alborz in the Corona Department in 2021-2022. The number of 28 nurses working in the Corona Department, who obtained an average score in the personality questionnaire of The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed.), were selected using convenience sampling and randomly divided into experimental (14 people) and control (13 people) groups. The measurement tools included Templer’s Death Anxiety and Besharat’s Perfectionism Scales, which were answered by the research participants. The experimental group received 10 sessions of 120 minutes of the treatment program. The data was analyzed using two-way repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA).

Virtual therapy program reduces death anxiety (Partial Eta=0.696, p<0.001, F=57.354), self-oriented perfectionism (Partial Eta=0.325, p=0.002, F=11.76), other-oriented perfectionism (Partial Eta=0.179, p=0.0284, F=5.46), and society-oriented perfectionism (Partial Eta=0.173, p=0.031, F=5.232) of nurses with obsessive personality traits.

The results of the study indicated the effect of acceptance and commitment therapy based on compassion on the improvement of personality traits in the experimental group, so this intervention can be used as a complementary treatment for obsessive personality.