Assessment of Acceptability and Initial Effectiveness of a Unified Protocol Prevention Program to Train Emotional Regulation Skills in Female Nursing Professionals during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Open accessAbstract
Healthcare professionals, especially women, have shown increases in anxious-depressive symptoms as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of this pilot study was to evaluate the acceptability and preliminary effectiveness of a Unified Protocol (UP) prevention program to provide emotional regulation skills to cope with stressful situations. The sample consisted of 27 nursing professionals (100% women; mean age: 45.67; SD = 7.71) working in a Spanish public hospital during COVID-19, who were randomized to an immediate treatment group (ITG, n = 13) or to a delayed treatment group (DTG, n = 14, which served as the waiting list control group and received the program 5 weeks after the ITG had received it). The program consisted of five-weekly, two-hour, UP-based group sessions. Variables related to emotional symptomatology, emotional regulation, personality, burnout, and perceived quality of life were evaluated at the following time points: pre- and post-intervention and at 1-, 3-, and 6-month follow-ups. Statistically significant between-group differences showed lower emotional exhaustion and personal accomplishment in favor of the ITG after the intervention. Regarding the effect over time for all participants who received the UP (n = 27), statistically significant reductions were observed in neuroticism, personal accomplishment, and subjective distress caused by traumatic events (−0.23 ≤ d ≤ −0.73). A statistically significant interaction “Time*Condition” was found in anxiety, with increases in the DTG. Participants showed high satisfaction with the UP. These findings show good acceptability and preliminary effectiveness of the UP to reduce the emotional impact of the pandemic in female nursing workers.
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Preliminary data show that the UP during the pandemic improved loneliness, anxiety, and emotion regulation.
“Preliminary data on the efficacy of the UP during the pandemic is encouraging as it has demonstrated improvements in many difficulties, including loneliness, anxiety, and emotion regulation (Ferreres-Galán et al., 2022;Southward et al., 2022;Yan et al., 2022).”
From RESILIENCE, COPING, AND THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC ACROSS THE GLOBE – AN UPDATE: WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED? (2023) · cites this paper as Ferreres-Galán et al., 2022
The Discussion reports reductions in anxiety in the immediate-treatment group, supporting that part of the preliminary claim. It also says there were no significant between-group improvements in emotion regulation and that apparent gains were not maintained long-term. The paper does not report a loneliness outcome (searched: loneliness). Section labels are available in our copy, but page numbers are not. (LLM, conf=0.88)
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- Authors
- Ferreres-Galán, V., Navarro-Haro, M. V., Peris-Baquero, Ó., Guillén-Marín, S., de Luna-Hermoso, J., & Osma, J.
- Affiliations
- Mental Health Unit of the Hospital Comarcal of Vinaròs, 12500 Vinaròs, Spain
- Health Research Institute of Aragón, 50009 Zaragoza, Spain
- Universidad de Zaragoza (ES)
- ORCID
- Venue
- International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Published
- 2022-05-07
- Volume
- 19
- Issue
- 9
- Pages
- 5715
- ISSN
- 1660-4601 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC9101624
- OpenAlex
- W4229334246
- Cited by
- 21
- References
- 47
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 1
- FWCI
- 4.34
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Zaguan (University of Zaragoza Repository) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- Gobierno de Aragón (Departamento de Innovación, Investigación y Universidad) (S31_20D)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › COVID-19 and Mental Health
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Disorders and Psychopathology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Keywords
- Unified Protocol, emotion regulation, prevention programs, female nurses, COVID-19 pandemic, burnout, emotional exhaustion, personal accomplishment, anxiety, neuroticism, quality of life, program acceptability, group intervention, occupational stress
- MeSH terms
- Emotional Regulation, COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Pilot Projects, Quality of Life, Pandemics
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