Creative Drama-Based Stress Management Program on Stress, Coping, and Emotional Intelligence

Nursing students will be assigned to the experimental and control groups using a stratified, simple randomization method within the strata. Gender was taken into account to ensure homogeneity between groups. Students will be divided into two strata based on gender (male and female).

To prevent selection bias, data will be collected by an independent expert, and students will be assigned to the experimental and control groups using a randomization method. Participant numbers will be assigned to students when the preliminary assessment data is transferred to the computer. Student group assignment will be conducted by a biostatistician independent of the study.

To prevent reporting bias, the study data will be analyzed by a biostatistician. Because the interventions will be administered by the researcher, there will be no blinding of the investigator. Participant blinding will be achieved by administering the educational experimental to the control group.

• Creative Drama-Based Stress Management Program (Behavioral): A creative drama-based stress management program is an intervention that aims to reduce nursing students' stress levels and increase their coping and emotional intelligence skills.
• Training (Behavioral): In the study, the control group will receive health education training for three weeks. This method aims to prevent any loss of motivation that might result from the control group not receiving any training. It also helps determine whether the effects observed in the experimental group are due solely to the creative drama-based stress management program or to the overall training process.

Primary outcomes

• Perceived Stress Scale for Nursing Students [Pre-intervention (pre-test) Immediately after the intervention (post-test) 1 month after the intervention (follow-up)]: Developed in Chinese by Sheu et al. (2002), the Turkish adaptation was made by Karaca et al. (2015). The scale consists of 29 items, and a five-point Likert-type scale was used to evaluate the items: "4 - Very stressful for me, 3, 2, 1, 0 - Not stressful for me." The scale has six subscales. The total score ranges from 0 to 116. A higher score indicates a higher degree of stress.
• Bio-Psycho-Social Response Scale for Nursing Students [Pre-intervention (pre-test) Immediately after the intervention (post-test) 1 month after the intervention (follow-up)]: Developed in Chinese by Sheu et al. (2002), the Turkish adaptation was made by Karaca et al. (2015). The scale consists of 21 items, and a five-point Likert-type rating scale was used for the assessment of items: 4 - I always experience, 3, 2, 1, and 0 - I never experience. The scale has three subscales. A higher score indicates more symptoms and a poorer bio-psycho-social status.
• Stress Coping Behaviors Scale for Nursing Students [Pre-intervention (pre-test) Immediately after the intervention (post-test) 1 month after the intervention (follow-up)]: Developed in Chinese by Sheu et al. (2002) and adapted into Turkish by Karaca et al. (2015). The scale consists of 19 items and was evaluated using a five-point Likert-type scale (4 - Agree, 3, 2, 1, 0 - Strongly Disagree). The scale has four subscales. A higher score on each subscale indicates that the student used that coping strategy more frequently.
• Emotional Intelligence Trait Scale - Short Form [Pre-intervention (pre-test) Immediately after the intervention (post-test) 1 month after the intervention (follow-up)]: Developed by Petrides and Furnham (2000) to assess an individual's self-perception of their emotional abilities. Adapted to Turkish by Deniz et al. (2013), the scale consists of a total of 20 items and four subscales: well-being, self-control, emotionality, and sociability. A high score indicates a high level of emotional intelligence; a low score indicates a low level of emotional intelligence.

Sex: All, ages: 18 Years to any, accepts healthy volunteers

Inclusion Criteria:

* Being a nursing student,
* Volunteering to participate in the study,

Exclusion Criteria:

* Having creative drama courses,
* Receiving professional psychological support,
* Having a disease that would prevent participation in the study.
* Participants were also excluded if they did not attend at least two consecutive sessions, or if they were incomplete or did not complete the data collection tools.