Stress Coping Strategy on Perceived Stress Levels and Performance During a Simulated Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation

"Students in the intervention group received a 10 minute instruction to cope with stress. They were informed that an emergency situation is a stressful experience for health care workers and that perceived stress may interfere with their decision-making abilities and performance. Particularly, feeling overwhelmed by stress may cause cognitive impairment potentially leading to loss of concept how to deal with an emergency situation, which in turn further increases stress (vicious cycle). However, it is possible to overcome this situation by focusing on the basic conditions of the situation and the immediate actions that are needed. They were instructed that they should ask two task-focusing questions aloud (what is the patient's condition?, what immediate action is needed?) to overcome the negative consequences of feeling overwhelmed by stress."