Abstract
Background and Objective: The high workload of nurses has increased the risk of anxiety, depression, and job stress among them, thus training on job stress management and improving the self-efficacy of nurses are of particular importance in the promotion of health services. The research aims to determine the effects of training on stress management skills in newly employed nurses in Ilam Province.

Methods: This quasi-experimental study was conducted on 80 nurses with less than two years of work experience at educational hospitals in Ilam Province during 2018. Samples were randomly divided into intervention and control groups each with 40 subjects. Data were collected using demographic information and job stress questionnaires before and after the study. The demographic questionnaire included gender, age, level of education, and marital status. The Job Stress Questionnaire consisted of 35 questions with seven subscales of demand, control, support from officials, support by colleagues, relationships between colleagues, role, and change. The questionnaire was scored based on a 5-point Likert scale of 1 (completely agree) to 5 (completely disagree), in which 1 is optimal and 5 is stressful and undesirable. Intervention for the test group consisted of four 2-hour sessions with topics of negative emotional state and stress outcomes, burnout syndrome, familiarity with the nature, symptoms, response to stress ratio, and stressors in the nursing job, which were usually found in workplace. Data were analyzed by dependent and independent samples t-test and analysis of covariance. A confidence coefficient of 95% and a significance level of 5% were considered in all tests.

Results: Most of the subjects were in the age group of 20-25 years in both the control (87.5%) and intervention (77.5%) groups. Women comprised 80% and 67.5% of the subjects in the intervention and control groups, respectively. Single participants were 45% and 32.5% in the control and intervention groups, respectively. According to the findings no significant differences were found between mean values of job stress variable in the control (3.46 ± 70%) and intervention (3.64 ± 81%) groups before the intervention (p = 0.82). After the intervention, the control (3.52 ± 82%) and intervention (3.10 ± 86%) groups were significantly different in mean values of job stress variable (p = 0.03). A significant difference was observed between mean job stress levels in the intervention group before (3.54 ± 0.81) and after (3.10 ± 0.88) the intervention (p = 0.04). In the control group, there were no significant differences between mean values of job stress variable before (3.46 ± 0.70) and after (3.46 ± 0.70) (p = 0.77) the intervention.

Conclusion: Based on the findings, it can be concluded that stress management training is effective in the mitigation of nurses’ stress. It is, therefore, recommended that managers and relevant officials to present applied stress management courses at hospitals with the presence of specialists in this field, and pave the ground for the participation of novice nurses in stress management courses with the necessary and sufficient support. As such, job stress can be reduced in novice nurses in order to effectively improve and promote their job performance.