Effects of Music Therapy on Subjective Stress Response, Salivary Cortisol, and Fatigue for Intensive Care Nurses

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to verify the effects of music therapy on subjective stress response, salivary cortisol and fatigue for nurses working in intensive care unit (ICU). METHODS: This study employed non-equivalent control group pretest–posttest design on quasi experimental basis. Subjects were 52 nurses (26 experimental and control group respectively) who have been working at ICU of Gil Hospital in Incheon, Korea. Data were collected from August 4 to October 6, 2014. Experimental group have listened to their 4-7 favorite musics individually once for 30 minutes after day-work. RESULTS: In experimental group, subjective stress response (t=5.02, P<0.001), salivary cortisol (t=2.08, P=0.042), and fatigue (t=5.66, P<0.001) have decreased significantly comparing to the control group. CONCLUSIONS: This study has confirmed especially through objective physiological index of salivary cortisol that listening the favorite music for nurses in ICU was an effective and objective managerial measure to resolve their job stress and fatigue.

Retention Effect of Basic Life Support Education Program on Attitude, Knowledge, Skillfulness for Nursing Students / 한국간호교육학회지

PURPOSE: This study was done to identify the retention effects of a basic life support training program for nursing students on their attitude, knowledge, and skillfulness. METHODS: A one-group repeated posttest design was employed for this study. The subjects included 44 junior nursing students from Gachon University in Incheon. Data were collected by a structured questionnaire test immediately after, 3 months after, 6 months after, and 9 months after the training respectively from May 2014 through March 2015. RESULTS: The respective attitude, knowledge and skillfulness score on BLS of the nursing students had reduced significantly at 3 months after (p<.001), 6 months after (p<.001), and 9 months after (p<.001, p=.011 for Attitudes) the training compared to immediately after the training. CONCLUSION: Re-training on basic life support for nursing students should be implemented within 3 months for retention of educational effects. Thus, it is recommended that basic life support training programs, including a curriculum for nursing students, is developed to support re-training. And it is expected that the improved skills of nursing students on basic life support would contribute to the successive first aid nursing for patients at risk of cardiac arrest.