Document Type : Research Article

Authors

1 PhD student of Psychology, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Ahvaz, Iran

2 Professor, Department of Psychology, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Ahvaz, Iran

3 Professor, Department of Psychology, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Ahvaz, Iran.

Abstract

Introduction
There are numerous stressors in nurse’s workplace including interpersonal conflict and incivility, their adverse effects on physical and psychological health, productivity and quality of nurse’s work reveals the need to identify and find effective solutions to reduce occupational stressors and improve nurse’s health status. Thus the aim of present study was to examine the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy on interpersonal conflict and experience of incivility in Ahvaz hospitals’ nurses.
Method
This research was a semi-experimental study with pre-test, post-test and control group. The statistical population of this study included all nurses in Ahvaz hospitals. The research sample was selected by multi-stage random sampling method. In this research, 40 nurses were randomly selected with regarding inclusion criteria and randomly assigned into experimental and control groups. In this research, interpersonal conflict at work scale (Spector & Jex, 1998) and workplace incivility scale (Cortina et al., 2001) were used for data collection. The intervention performed on experimental group consisted of three sessions of acceptance and commitment therapy based workplace training program (second session a week after first session, and third session a month after second session). Multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) used for data analysis.
 
Results
Theresults of data analysis showed that there was a significant difference between the control and experimental groups in terms of interpersonal conflict (F=160.426, P=0.001) and incivility (F = 164.485, P= 0.001) with pre-test control. Therefore, the results showed that acceptance and commitment based therapy in the workplace reduces interpersonal conflict and incivility in nurses.
 
Discussion
Based on the findings, it seems that acceptance and commitment therapy improved the interpersonal conflict and experience of incivility; finally it can be said that this approach can be used to reduce interpersonal conflict and incivility in nurses. While reducing stress or avoiding stress in the workplace may not always be possible for nurses, some strategies for managing it better can be taught to nurses and provide an important opportunity to maintain well-being and increase their effectiveness.
 

Keywords

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