Occupational Stress and Mental Health in Clinical Nurses

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn whether REGULA-T, a group-based emotional-skills program, improves stress coping and emotion regulation in nursing students during their clinical placements. The program is aimed at nursing students aged 18 or older enrolled in supervised clinical placements. The main questions it aims to answer are: Does it reduce their difficulties in regulating emotions and improve their perceived emotional intelligence and coping strategies? Does the program reduce perceived stress and anxiety in students during their placements? Researchers will compare students who take part in the REGULA-T program with students who follow the standard curriculum (waiting-list control group, who are offered the program after the study) to see whether the program improves emotional wellbeing during clinical placements. Participants in the program will: * Attend a 9-session emotional-management workshop held in two modules across the academic year, timed to coincide with their clinical placements * Have access to an on-demand individual support service throughout the year * Complete online questionnaires before their placements begin and again after they finish * Optionally take part, after the final questionnaires, in an online group discussion about their experience Participants in the control group will follow their standard curriculum, complete the same online questionnaires at the same two time points, and be offered the program once the study is complete.

Clinical nurses are frequently exposed to high emotional demands due to heavy workloads, time pressure, patient suffering, and the interpersonal complexity of clinical care. These stressors may contribute to compassion fatigue, burnout, reduced resilience, and decreased occupational well-being. However, timely and accessible psychological support is often limited in busy clinical environments, and many nurses may hesitate to seek help due to stigma, time constraints, or limited resources. This study is a prospective, randomized, controlled, parallel-group interventional trial designed to evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of an on-demand, human-centered emotional support intervention delivered through a LINE-based GPT assistant. The AI assistant provides real-time supportive conversations, reflective prompts, stress-coping guidance, and resilience-enhancing strategies tailored specifically for clinical nurses, offering a private and easily accessible support resource. Eligible clinical nurses (target sample size: 100-120) are randomly assigned to either an Intervention Group, which interacts with the AI assistant, or a Control Group, which receives non-interactive static messages, over a four-week intervention period. Primary outcomes include changes in compassion fatigue, burnout, and compassion satisfaction, as measured by the Professional Quality of Life Scale (ProQOL). Secondary outcomes include changes in resilience (Brief Resilience Scale), general self-efficacy (General Self-Efficacy Scale), and perceived stress (Perceived Stress Scale-10). The results of this study are expected to provide evidence on the feasibility and potential effectiveness of AI-based emotional support as a scalable and accessible tool to promote psychological well-being among clinical nurses, thereby informing future digital mental health interventions in healthcare settings.