The relationship between the psychological resilience levels and ruminative thought styles of nurses providing care for earthquake victims: 2023 earthquake in Kahramanmaraş, Türkiye

Abstract

Traumatic cases experienced during earthquakes, which are considered among acts of God, may cause multiple and severe impacts on healthcare professionals. This research aimed to examine the ruminative thought styles and psychological resilience level of nurses who provided care services to the victims after the earthquake that struck Kahramanmaraş, Türkiye on February 6-7th. This descriptive and correlational study was conducted with 225 nurses. Research data were collected using the Personal Information Form, Ruminative Thought Style Questionnaire and Brief Resilience Scale. A negative and moderate relationship was determined between the psychological resilience level of nurses and their ruminative thought style (r = -0.477, p < 0.05). The psychological resilience level of nurses who received training on disasters and psychological resilience was determined to be higher whereas their ruminative thought tendency was lower (p < 0.05). It was determined that the ruminative thought style of the nurses decreased as their psychological resilience level increased. Trainings on disaster nursing and aiming to increase the psychological resilience level may be recommended in order to improve the psychological resilience of nurses. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2024.