Effects of an Intervention to Enhance Resilience in Physical Therapy Students

Health professional students experience high levels of psychological stress. Individuals with higher levels of resilience are better equipped to handle stress. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effects of an 8-hour resilience curriculum on stress levels, resilience, coping, protective factors, and symptomatology on students enrolled in a doctor of physical therapy (DPT) program. Hypothesis: The curriculum will decrease stress levels, increase resilience, coping flexibility, protective factors (optimism, positive affect, and social support), and reduce symptomatology (negative affect, illness). Research on stress and its consequences experienced by physical therapy students in particular is limited. If the results of this study support this hypothesis, it may establish the benefit of adding a resilience component to the curriculum for students of physical therapy.

The study involves curriculum development and evaluation by randomized controlled trial. Participants will be randomized to the intervention group to receive a Resilience Curriculum or to a wait-list control group to receive a condensed version of the curriculum following the post-intervention assessments. Pre- and post-intervention assessments will be administered to both groups, with baseline assessments administered in the first two weeks of the semester. The assessments will include measures of stress levels, levels of resilience, coping flexibility, optimism, positive and negative emotions, social support, and symptoms of illness. The intervention, the presentation of a resilience curriculum, will be delivered to the intervention group during the week following the baseline assessments and it will last for four weeks. The resilience curriculum will provide education for participants about methods to increase protective factors against stress, the use of effective coping strategies, and the importance of accessing social support, with the goal of better managing stress and enhancing resilience. The intervention will include a didactic component, skills-building training, and homework exercises to encourage the application of the skills. The curriculum will be delivered in four 2-hour modules, with one module delivered each week. The follow-up assessments will occur after midterm examinations are concluded. An abbreviated curriculum which will last approximately two hours will be delivered to the wait-list control group.

The intervention is exposure to an 8-hour Resilience Curriculum. It will provide education for participants about methods to increase protective factors against stress, the use of effective coping strategies, and the importance of accessing social support, with the goal of better managing stress and enhancing resilience. The curriculum will include a didactic component, skills-building training, and homework exercises to encourage the application of the skills.

The Waitlist Control group will receive no exposure to the Resilience Curriculum. After the final data is collected, this group will be offered the opportunity to attend a condensed 2-hour version of the curriculum.

The 25-item Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale measures a variety of constructs of resilience including hardiness, personal competence, social bonds, patience, and spiritual influences.

The 10-item Perceived Stress Scale was created to assess the perception of stress in the previous month,

The Coping Flexibility Scale is a 10-item tool to measure the ability of an individual to effectively modify coping behavior.

The 20-item Modified Differential Emotion Scale, an adaptation of the original Differential Emotion Scale, measures positive and negative emotions that an individual has experienced in the previous 2 weeks.

The Social Provisions Scale is a 24-item assessment of six areas of social relationships (guidance, reliable alliance, attachment, social integration, reassurance of worth, and opportunity for nurturance) used to measure perceived social support.

The Symptoms of Illness Checklist is a 33-item tool designed to measure the number, frequency, and severity of physical symptoms experienced in the previous two-week period.

Inclusion Criteria: Current enrollment in Doctor of Physical Therapy program at either Indiana University or the University of Indianapolis Exclusion Criteria: None

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