Positive Health Online

Abstract

ZAMANIFAR and COLLEAGUES, 1 Student Research Committee, Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences, Sanandaj, Iran; 2 Clinical Care Research Center, Research Institute for Health Development, Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences, Sanandaj, Iran; 3  Department of Medical Surgical Nursing, Besat Hospital, Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences, Sanandaj, Iran; 4 Department of Midwifery, Besat Hospital, Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences, Sanandaj, Iran conducted a randomized double-blind clinical trial to determine the effect of music therapy and aromatherapy with chamomile - lavender essential oil on the anxiety of clinical nurses.

Background

Nurses may be anxious due to critical and emergencies, and anxiety can affect their professional performance. Non-pharmacological interventions, as a safe method, can reduce anxiety. This study aimed to determine the effect of music therapy and aromatherapy with chamomile – lavender essential oil on the anxiety of clinical nurses.

Methodology

This was a randomized, double-blind clinical trial. One hundred twenty nurses from clinical wards of Besat Hospital in Sanandaj, Iran, were selected between 2018 and 2019 by purposeful sampling. The samples were randomly assigned to three groups with different interventions, namely music therapy, both aromatherapy with chamomile-lavender essential oil and music therapy, and aromatherapy with chamomile-lavender essential oil, along with a control group as well. The anxiety of nurses was measured based on the Beck Anxiety Inventory before the intervention and after three work shifts. The data were analyzed using the SPSS v.22 software. One-way ANOVA was used to test the hypotheses.

Results

The findings showed that the mean scores of the anxiety of nurses after the intervention in the three groups namely the group for which music therapy was applied, the group for which aromatherapy with chamomile-lavender essential oil was used and the group for which both music therapy and aromatherapy with chamomile-lavender essential oil were applied, were (39.28), (37.82) and (40.03), respectively. Therefore, the obtained mean score of each group was significantly lower than that of the control group (56.08) (p < 0.0001). The results showed that the interventions of music therapy and aromatherapy with chamomile-lavender essential oil could reduce the anxiety of nurses.

Conclusion

Therefore, it is recommended to use music therapy and aromatherapy with chamomile-lavender essential oil to reduce the anxiety of nurses in the clinical setting.

References

Somayeh Zamanifar  1 , Mohammad Iraj Bagheri-Saveh  2 , Aram Nezakati  3 , Rozhin Mohammadi  4 , Jamal Seidi  2. The Effect of Music Therapy and Aromatherapy with Chamomile-Lavender Essential Oil on the Anxiety of Clinical Nurses: A Randomized and Double-Blind Clinical Trial J Med Life. 13(1):87-93. doi: 10.25122/jml-2019-0105. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32341707/  Jan-Mar 2020.

Comment

Results from the above randomized double-blind clinical trial demonstrated that mean scores for anxiety of nurses treated with aromatherapy with chamomile-lavender essential oil as well as music therapy and aromatherapy with chamomile-lavender essential oil  were 39.28, 27.82 and 40.03, compared with 56.08 for the control group with significance of p<0.0001. Therefore music therapy and aromatherapy with chamomile-lavender essential oil should be recommended to reduce  anxiety of nurses in the clinical setting.