Testing a Training Program to Enhance Emotional Management Skills and Professional Resiliency in Healthcare Providers

Implementing and Evaluating an Empirically Supported Training Program to Enhance Emotional Management Skills and Professional Resiliency in Healthcare Providers

The Behaviour Change Institute (BCI) was created in 2008 within Capital Health to provide healthcare providers with evidence-based skills in helping patients change. In addition, the BCI has also become a resource within the organization to assist with other needed changes, such as helping healthcare providers use new or different procedures to provide better patient care. Through our work at the BCI we have identified the need to help healthcare providers to better cope with change. The purpose of this project is to implement and to evaluate an evidence-based professional resiliency training program for staff to help them better cope with change. This professional resiliency training program is based on an empirically supported form of therapy called Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. The training takes the form of a hands-on, applied workshop designed to increase resiliency and flexibility in a workplace setting.

Study Overview

• Status: Unknown
• Conditions: Burnout, Professional; Adaptation, Psychological
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for the Workplace

Detailed Description

The Behaviour Change Institute (BCI) was created in 2008 within Capital Health to provide healthcare providers with behaviour change counselling skills. These skills are backed by evidence-based theory and competency training methods and are designed to be used by healthcare providers to help their patients change their behaviours. Acquiring these skills involves change for the healthcare provider. Through our work at the BCI we have come to identify the need to help healthcare providers effectively manage their emotions in such situations in order to learn behavior change counselling skills and to continue to use them effectively over time. The ability to effectively manage emotions, including discomfort and distress, may differentiate between individuals who are able to successfully adopt and maintain new behaviours over time from those who do not (Brown, Lejuez, Kahler, Strong, & Zvolensky, 2005). That is, we have identified that there is a significant need to support healthcare providers to more effectively manage emotions in order to help them change.

The Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for the Workplace program (ACT-W) is an evidence-based program designed to help individuals manage emotions and stress by learning skills to accept negative feelings, thoughts, and sensations and to move toward valued behaviours (Flaxman, Bond, Livheim, Hayes, 2013). The ACT-W program has been shown to increase the ability to manage emotions and stress (Flaxman & Bond, 2010) and to increase the ability to learn new behaviours (Bond & Flaxman, 2006; Luoma et al., 2007; Varra, Hayes et al., 2008).

The purpose of this project is to evaluate the implementation of the ACT-W training program for healthcare providers through the BCI.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Anticipated): 240
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Dayna Lee-Baggley, Ph.D.; Phone Number: 902-473-4686; Email: dayna.lee-baggley@nshealth.ca

Study Locations

• Canada
  • Nova Scotia
    • Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, B3H2Y9
      • Recruiting
      • Nova Scotia Health Authority
      • Contact: Dayna L Lee-Baggley, PhD; Phone Number: 9024734686; Email: dayna.lee-baggley@nshealth.ca

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 19 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Employees (full time or part time; administrative or clinical) within service areas with managerial approval to attend the training program.

Exclusion Criteria:

• None

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Other
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Crossover Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Active Comparator: Immediate intervention; Acceptance and Commitment Therapy	Behavioral: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for the Workplace; Acceptance and Commitment Therapy; Other Names: Professional Resiliency
Placebo Comparator: Waitlist control; Acceptance and Commitment Therapy	Behavioral: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for the Workplace; Acceptance and Commitment Therapy; Other Names: Professional Resiliency

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change in Psychological Flexibility	The Acceptance and Action Questionnaire, a 7-item self-report scale which measures one's willingness to experience difficult thoughts and emotions while also persisting in the pursuit of values and goals.	Change from T1 (baseline) to T2 (1 week) and change from T1 (baseline) to T3 (3 months)

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change in Burnout	The Maslach Burnout Inventory, a 22-item self-report scale that measures three facets of burnout including emotional exhaustion (e.g. emotionally overextended within one's job); depersonalization (e.g. having impersonal responses to one's customers/clients; and personal accomplishment (e.g. sense of competence).	Change from T1 (baseline) to T2 (1 week) and change from T1 (baseline) to T3 (3 months)
Absenteeism	Number of hours missed from the workplace due to illness from time sheets submitted by each employee to payroll.	at 2 years

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Nova Scotia Health Authority
• Collaborators: IWK Health Centre
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Dayna Lee-Baggley, Ph.D., Nova Scotia Health Authority

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): November 1, 2015
• Primary Completion (Anticipated): October 1, 2019
• Study Completion (Anticipated): October 1, 2019

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: September 15, 2015
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 15, 2015
• First Posted (Estimate): September 17, 2015

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): February 1, 2019
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: January 31, 2019
• Last Verified: January 1, 2019

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Behavioral Symptoms; Stress, Psychological; Occupational Stress; Occupational Diseases; Burnout, Psychological; Burnout, Professional
• Other Study ID Numbers: NSHA REB ROMEO File #: 1019748