Métodos terapêuticos não farmacológicos para o manejo do estresse em acadêmicos de enfermagem: revisão integrativa

Abstract

Stress is a natural response of the body and one of the ways of coping is the use of Integrative and Complementary Practices. The aim of this study is to identify, in the scientific literature, non-pharmacological therapeutic methods in stress management for nursing students. This is an integrative review, carried out from May to August 2024, using the Virtual Health Library, ScienceDirect, Web of Science and SciELO databases. A cross-reference was made between Health Sciences Descriptors and Boolean operators, forming four search strategies: “Complementary Therapies” AND “Nursing Students” AND “Psychological Stress”; “Complementary Therapies” AND “Nursing Students”; “Complementary Therapies” AND “Psychological Stress”; “Nursing Students” AND “Psychological Stress”. A total of 5,204 articles were found and, through peer review, 11 articles were selected for this review. As inclusion criteria, priority was given to studies from the last 5 years, complete, free of charge, in Portuguese, English and Spanish. The articles were stored in Rayyan software and in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. All the articles included in the review dealt with nursing academics. The non-pharmacological therapeutic methods identified were yoga, representing 36.3% of the articles included; flower essences, mindfulness and music therapy, individually representing 18.1% of the articles included; progressive muscle relaxation, aromatherapy and therapeutic touch, individually representing 9.09% of the articles included. Nursing students are vulnerable to stress due to the pressure of the student environment. Therefore, the studies included in this study showed a reduction in stress and anxiety levels, as well as improved academic performance, following the use of non-pharmacological therapeutic methods. The conclusion is that there is a need to implement the use of non-pharmacological therapeutic methods for nursing students, because, as presented in the studies analyzed, reduced stress levels make undergraduates more active and productive during the day, allowing for the optimization of curricular performance and quality of life, as well as the positive development of nursing skills.