The Effect of Forest Healing Program on Job Search Stress, Career Decision-making Self-efficacy, and Career Resilience among Nursing College Students

Abstract

This study was conducted to analyze the effect of forest healing program on job search stress, career decision-making self-efficacy, and career resilience of nursing college students. The student participants included 33 fourth-grade students at the Department of Nursing of S University in Gangwon-do. The forest healing program was conducted in 6 sessions once a week from October 17th to November 19th, of 2019. The contents of the forest healing program included of climate, spirit, exercise, diet, and plant elements. As a result, the career decision-making self-efficacy increased from 3.31 in pre-test to 3.49 in post-test analysis. The difference was statistically significant (P = .018). However, there was no significant difference in job search stress, career resilience, and serum cortisol (P = .105. P =. 292, P = .217). The findings suggest that the forest healing program had a positive effect on reducing negative emotions such as employment stress among the research participants and increased positive emotions such as career decision-making self-efficacy and career elasticity.