The Effect of a Job Stress Management Program Based on Acceptance-Commitment Therapy for Firefighting Paramedics

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to develop an acceptance-commitment therapy (ACT) based job stress management programs for firefighting paramedics and to examine the effects on the psychological flexibility, job stress (i.e. psychological, physiological and behavioral areas) and quality of life.Methods: This study consisted of a pre-test-posttest for a nonequivalent control group design. Participants were 45 firefighting paramedics working at two fire stations located in specific areas (experimental group: 22, control group: 23). The experimental group received the ACT based job stress management program twice a week for a total of 3 weeks. The study was carried out from August 12 to 31, 2019, and data were analyzed using IBM SPSS/WIN 25.0 with a x2 test, Fisher's exact test, and independent t-test.Results: The differences between experimental and control groups were statistically significant for psychological flexibility (t=4.91, p<.001), psychological job stress (t=-6.10, p<.001) and quality of life (t=3.78, p<.001). However, physiological stress (t=-1.91, p=.063) and behavioral stress (t=-1.18, p=.243) were not significantly different between the two groups.Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that ACT based job stress management program can be used as an effective community mental health nursing intervention to improve the psychological flexibility, psychological job stress and quality of life of firefighting paramedics.