Effect of Neuro-Linguistic Programming on Stress in Nursing Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Background • In nursing education, which includes applied and theoretical education, nursing students experienced intense stress in their education due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) is a technique that enables an individual to adapt to any situation using various techniques based on neural programming and emotional perception. This technique is known to be effective in stress management. Primary Study Objective • This research aims to determine the impact of NLP practices on the stress experienced by nursing students in their education processes. Methods/Design • This research was designed as a randomized controlled experiment. Settings • This study was performed with participants (nursing students) enrolled in the Faculty of Health Sciences, Nursing Department of a state university located in the southeast of Turkey. Participants • The sample included 90 nursing students, with 30 each in NLP training, standard training, and control groups. Intervention • Data collection was conducted in line with the plan prepared with face-to-face interviews and expert support for nursing students in NLP training, standard training, and control groups between September and November 2021, after receiving NLP training by the researcher. Primary Outcome Measures • The 32-item nursing education stress scale, developed by Rhead in 1995 and validated by Karaca et al. in 2014, was used to measure the stress levels among the participants. Data were collected as pre-test and post-test. Number, percentage, and variance analyses were used to analyze the collected data. Results • When the nursing education stress score averages of the students in the post-test were compared, it was found that the total stress and sub-dimension scores in the NLP education group were considerably lower than in the standard education and control groups (P < .05). Conclusions • The study showed that NLP applications are effective in reducing and managing intense stress experienced by students in nursing education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]