The Effects of "Three Good Things" Positive Psychotherapy on Nurses' Burnout

A randomized, controlled trial was conducted for 73 Chineses nurses from The Second Xiangya Hospitcal of Central South University (33 in the experimental group, 40 in the control group). The experimental group received a six-month Wechat-based "three good things" positive psychotherapy from August 2015 to January 2016, while the control group only received normal psychological instruction from the hospital. A socio-demographic sheet, Malsach Burnout Inventory-General Survey, the Turnover Intention Scale, The Job Satisfaction Scale, The Job Performance Scale, General Self-efficacy Scale, The Trait Coping Style Scale (TCSS), The Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC) were used to collect data prior to and immdediately after the intervention. The blood cortisol was also evaluated prior to and immdediately after the intervention. SPSS 23.0 was used for data analysis. Descriptive statistics, ANOVA, Chi-square test, repeated-measures analysis and T-test were employed to analyse the effect of "three good things" intervention on nurse burnout. We hypothesis that the "three good things" positive psychotherapy could alleviate nurses' burnout, turnover intention, improve their job performance, job satisfaction, self-efficacy, resilience, introduce nurses' to use positive coping strategies to overcome adversities. Moreover, their blood cortisol would be reduced after the intervention.