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

Impact of a Stress Coping Strategy on Perceived Stress Levels and Performance During a Simulated Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation: A Randomized Controlled Trial

This study assessed the impact of a task-focusing strategy on perceived stress levels and performance during a simulated CPR scenario.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Cardiopulmonary Resuscitations
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Stress coping

Detailed Description

Background: Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) causes significant stress, which may cause deficiencies in attention and increase distractibility. This may lead to misjudgements of priorities and delays in CPR performance, which may further increase mental stress (vicious cycle).

Aim: This study assessed the impact of a task-focusing strategy on perceived stress levels and performance during a simulated CPR scenario.

Methods: This is a prospective, randomized-controlled trial

Setting: Simulator-center of the University Hospital Basel, Switzerland.

Participants: A total of 124 volunteer medical students

Intervention: Randomization to receive a 10 minute instruction to cope with stress by loudly posing two task-focusing questions ("what is the patient's condition?", "what immediate action is needed?") when feeling overwhelmed by stress (intervention group) or a control group.

Outcome measures: The primary outcome is the perceived levels of stress and feeling overwhelmed (stress/overload); secondary outcomes were hands-on time, time to start CPR and number of leadership statements.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 124
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Switzerland
  • BS
    • Basel, BS, Switzerland, 4055
      • University Hospital Basel, ICU

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 20 years to 80 years (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• 4th year medical students

Exclusion Criteria:

• none

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Triple

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: intervention; Participants received a 10 minute instruction to cope with stress by loudly posing two task-focusing questions ("what is the patient's condition?", "what immediate action is needed?") when feeling overwhelmed by stress (intervention group)	Behavioral: Stress coping; 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.
No Intervention: Control; Students in the control group did not receive any further instructions.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Average level of stress/overload during the resuscitation period	The primary outcome was the average level of stress/overload during the resuscitation period for the experimental and the control group.	In the first 120 seconds after the onset of the cardiac arrest

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
hands-on time	Medical performance measures: hands-on time defined as duration of uninterrupted chest compressions and defibrillation in the first 120 seconds after the onset of the cardiac arrest.	in the first 120 seconds after the onset of the cardiac arrest.
time elapsed until CPR was started	the time elapsed until CPR was started, defined as the time to the first meaningful measure (either defibrillation, chest compression or ventilation) after the onset of the cardiac arrest; the team coordination measure	in the first 120 seconds after the onset of the cardiac arrest
leadership statements	Number of leadership statements coded, using a predefined checklist containing the following categories based on previous research	in the first 120 seconds after the onset of the cardiac arrest

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University Hospital, Basel, Switzerland
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Sabina Hunziker, MD, MPH, University Hospital Basel, Basel 4031 Basel, Switzerland

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: December 1, 2007
• Primary Completion (Actual): March 1, 2008
• Study Completion (Actual): May 1, 2008

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: April 3, 2013
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 3, 2013
• First Posted (Estimate): April 8, 2013

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimate): April 8, 2013
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 3, 2013
• Last Verified: April 1, 2013

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Stress; simulation; coping
• Other Study ID Numbers: SH_SIP_2007