The effect of psychoeducation on hope, loneliness and depression of nursing students who experienced 6 February 2023 Turkey earthquake

Psychoeducation after a traumatic event can help reduce negative effects by providing a cognitive framework for one’s experience. It can also enable trauma survivors to increase their ability to help coping. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of psychoeducation on hope, loneliness and depression in nursing students who experienced 6 February 2023 Turkey earthquake. The study, which was conducted in experimental design, included 40 students who experienced the February 6 earthquake. 20 students were assigned to the psychoeducation group and 20 students to the control group. Students in the psychoeducation group received six sessions of psychoeducation, while students in the control group were not intervened. ’Personal Information Form’, ‘Beck Hopelessness Scale’, ‘UCLA Loneliness Scale’ and ‘Beck Depression Scale’ were used to collect the data. Mean, standard deviation and percentage calculations, chi-square test and t test were used to analyze the data. Sociodemographic characteristics of the students in the psychoeducation and control groups were similar except for the place of residence (p > 0.05). It was determined that the mean score of the hope sub-dimension of the ’Beck Hopelessness Scale’ was statistically significantly higher in the control group (p < 0.05). It was determined that there was no statistically significant difference between the students in the psychoeducation and control groups in terms of hopelessness levels and mean scores of ‘UCLA Loneliness Scale’ and ‘Beck Depression Scale’ (p > 0.05). There was a statistically significant difference between the students in the psychoeducation and control groups in terms of depression levels (p < 0.05). In conclusion, psychoeducation was partially effective on hope and depression and not on loneliness in students who experienced the earthquake. Students in the psychoeducation group had lower levels of depression. It is recommended that students experiencing natural disasters such as earthquakes should be monitored by a specialized psychologist and the duration of psychoeducation should be regulated.