Elsevier

EXPLORE

Volume 17, Issue 2, March–April 2021, Pages 109-114
EXPLORE

Original Research
The effect of Emotional Freedom Techniques on nurses' stress, anxiety, and burnout levels during the COVID-19 pandemic: A randomized controlled trial

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.explore.2020.11.012Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Online psychological assistance services are widely implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic.

  • Online access-based emotional freedom technique positively affected the stress and anxiety of nurses who care for COVID-19 patients.

  • Online access-based emotional freedom technique positively affected burnout for nurses who care for COVID-19 patients.

Abstract

Background and Objective

Infectious disease outbreaks pose psychological challenges to the general population, and especially to healthcare workers. Nurses who work with COVID-19 patients are particularly vulnerable to emotions such as fear and anxiety, due to fatigue, discomfort, and helplessness related to their high intensity work. This study aims to investigate the efficacy of a brief online form of Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) in the prevention of stress, anxiety, and burnout in nurses involved in the treatment of COVID patients.

Methods

The study is a randomized controlled trial. It complies with the guidelines prescribed by the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) checklist. It was conducted in a COVID-19 department at a university hospital in Turkey. We recruited nurses who care for patients infected with COVID-19 and randomly allocated them into an intervention group (n = 35) and a no-treatment control group (n = 37). The intervention group received one guided online group EFT session.

Results

Reductions in stress (p < .001), anxiety (p < .001), and burnout (p < .001) reached high levels of statistical significance for the intervention group. The control group showed no statistically significant changes on these measures (p > .05).

Conclusions

A single online group EFT session reduced stress, anxiety, and burnout levels in nurses treating COVID-19.

Cited by (0)

Contributions: Study design: BD, DI; data collection and management: BD, DI; data analysis; BD; manuscript preparation: DI, BD.

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