Korean J Rehabil Nurs.  2004 Jun;7(1):15-23.

The Effects of Yoga Exercise on Stress and Health status in Clinical Nurses

• Cho HS

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to verify the effects of Yoga exercise as one way of thenursing intervention on stress and health status. This study was a quasi-experimental design with a non-equivalent control group pretest and posttest design. The study subjects were clinical nurses at K University hospital, in J city. Fifty one nurses were selected with 26 to a experimental group and 25 to a control group. The study data were collected from November, 2002 to January, 2003. During this period Yoga exercise was given to experimental group three times per week(one hour every time) for twelve weeks and no program was given to control group. The degree of general stress, job stress, health perception and health status was measured before and after experiment. The data were analyzed using SAS 8.1 program to obtain chi-square, paired, unpaired t-test. The results of this study are as follows. 1. After the experiment, the degree of general stress increased (t=-3.61, p=0.001) in experimental group, but in control group. There was significant difference between two groups (t=-2.10, p=0.041). However there was no significant difference in job stress between two groups and in each group (p=0.001), 2. After the experiment, the degree of health perception in experimental group increased (t=2.13, p=0.043) in control group. There was no significant difference between two groups. Health status in experimental group increased (t=3.14, 0.004) but in control group after the experiment. There was no significant difference between two groups. From the results, we are convinced that Yoga exercise is the nursing intervention that could decrease stress and promote health status in clinical nurses. Therefore Yoga exercise could be largely applied as one way of health care for nurses.

MeSH Terms

Delivery of Health Care
Nursing
Yoga*