Psychological Intervention on Burnout in ICU Caregivers

Psychological Intervention on Burnout in ICU Caregivers: a Randomised Controlled Study

ICU caregivers face up to a demanding job with a high level of technical skills, a stressful environment, and a heavy work load. They run a high risk of developing burnout that can impact on their welfare, performance, and patient care. Burnout favours absenteeism and staff quitting their jobs, whereas the shortage of ICU caregivers already started. No randomised controlled intervention aimed at reducing such distresses had been run until now.

This study allowed finding a new method of psychological support applicable in the special environment of ICU. Our findings suggest that psychologists specifically assigned to treat ICU caregivers might be beneficial on their burnout.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Depression; Burnout; Anxiety
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: problem-based sessions

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 166
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Switzerland
  • Geneva, Switzerland
    • University Hopitals of Geneva

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: ADULT; OLDER_ADULT; CHILD
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• all ICU caregivers rrom the University Hospital of Geneva

Exclusion Criteria:

• refusals

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: SUPPORTIVE_CARE
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Interventional Model: PARALLEL
• Masking: DOUBLE

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
NO_INTERVENTION: Control Group
EXPERIMENTAL: Intervention Group	Behavioral: problem-based sessions; weekly sessions for small groups of caregivers, led by two psychologists acting as moderators and using a systemic approach, as suggested in other peer-support groups using a problem-based method

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Measurement of the changes in the levels of anxiety, depression, and burnout in nurses and nursing auxiliaries.	Anxiety (HA) and depression (HD) were identified by the validated French version of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), which is composed of 14 items, self-rated using a 4-point Likert scale (0 to 3). The sub-scale scores of anxiety and depression range respectively from 0 to 7 (no distress), 8 to 10 (borderline), 11 to 15 (significant) and 16 to 21 (severe distress). Burnout was evaluated using the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) in its Fontaine French version; it is composed of 22 questions on a 7-point Likert scale (0 to 6). This tool measures the 3 dimensions of burnout independently: emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation, and personal accomplishment. Scores of ≥ 27, ≥ 10, or ≤33 respectively for the 3 dimensions, can be a sign of burnout. A severe burnout can also be defined as the cumulated score of MBI of > -9.	At the beginning , at the end and 6 months after the end of the intervention.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Composite measurement of the changes of ICU activity and absenteeism before, during, just after and six months after the intervention.	ICU activities and absenteeism were analysed during 4 three-month time periods, i.e. 3 months before [Before] (January to March 2009), 3 months during [During] (randomly picked out as September and November 2009, and January 2010), 3 months following the end of the intervention [After] (April to June 2010) and from 7 to 10 months after intervention [At 6 months] (November, December 2010 and January 2011). Absenteeism was defined as the number of caregivers absent at least once per time period, independently of the duration of the absence.	4 three-months time periods (cf. Description).

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Measurement of staff quitting their jobs	We identified how many persons had quitted the ICU between the beginning and the end of the intervention (inclusion time).	At the end of the intervention

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University Hospital, Geneva
• Investigators: Study Director: Bara Ricou, Professor, University Hospitals of Geneva

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: April 1, 2009
• Primary Completion (ACTUAL): December 1, 2009
• Study Completion (ACTUAL): September 1, 2013

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: September 23, 2013
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: October 9, 2013
• First Posted (ESTIMATE): October 10, 2013

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (ESTIMATE): October 10, 2013
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: October 9, 2013
• Last Verified: October 1, 2013

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Behavioral Symptoms; Stress, Psychological; Burnout, Psychological
• Other Study ID Numbers: CER 08-220 (NAC08-069)