Bournemouth University Resilience Training for Surgeons (BURTS)

March 1, 2022 updated by: Bournemouth University

Ameliorating the Impact of Complications and Errors on Surgeons: Resilience Training for Surgeons.

The challenges that characterise surgical practice may result in a myriad of stressors that impact upon the personal and professional lives of surgeons. This includes a high likelihood that surgeons will have to deal with adverse patient outcomes due to surgical complications and errors, sometime during their careers. Such stressors can have undesirable effects on the surgeon in terms of quality of life and psychological well-being (e.g. anxiety, feelings of regret), as well as lowered professional confidence and impaired perceptions of professional competence. Furthermore, there is evidence that these kinds of negative impacts can also lead to burnout and depression. As well as the detrimental effects on surgeons and those around them, this in turn may lead to more errors and poorer outcomes for patients. This study will examine the efficacy of an ACT based training intervention to enhance resilience and psychological flexibility.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Detailed Description

Research in a range of occupational settings has indicated that resilience plays an important role in ameliorating the impact of adverse events in high pressure environments. This project will use a randomised controlled trial research design to assess the efficacy of brief one-to-one Acceptance and Commitment Training (ACTr), designed to enhance surgeons' psychological resilience. According to the model ACTr is based on, psychopathology is primarily the consequence of psychological inflexibility i.e. inability to persist or change behaviour according to long-term values due to language and cognition skills, which has particular significance when an individual is confronted with stress or adversity.

The main aim of this research is to assess the efficacy of a brief one-to-one Acceptance and Commitment Training course. Researchers wish to ascertain whether such a course can increase surgeons' resilience by increasing psychological flexibility, valuing and self-compassion (all of which are expected to be positively impacted by this training). This research will fill a gap in the relevant research literature; namely that no research project as far as we are aware has evaluated ACTr as a means to enhance resilience in surgeons. In fact any research conducted on resilience training with a surgical population is rare.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

68

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

      • Bournemouth, United Kingdom, BH7 7DW
        • Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
      • Poole, United Kingdom, BH15 2JB
        • Poole Hopsital

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

19 years to 73 years (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

Trainee surgeons and consultant surgeons

Exclusion Criteria:

None

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Prevention
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Intervention Group
Acceptance and Commitment Training (ACTr)
The programme is based on Acceptance and Commitment Training (ACT), a contemporary, empirically supported approach to psychological well-being.
No Intervention: Wait-list control
No intervention during trial. Participants in this group will be offered the training once the study is complete.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Resilience - Brief Resilience Scale (BRS)
Time Frame: 20 weeks
A self-report measure of psychological resilience. Higher values represent a better outcome.
20 weeks
General Health - General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12).
Time Frame: 20 weeks
A self reported measure of minor psychological symptomology in a non-clinical population.
20 weeks

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
CBI (Copenhagen Burnout Inventory)
Time Frame: 20 weeks
A self-report measure of vulnerability to burnout. Lower values represent a better outcome.
20 weeks
DASS21 (Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale)
Time Frame: 20 weeks
A self-report measure of depression, stress and anxiety. Lower values represent a better outcome.
20 weeks
VLQ (Value Living Questionnaire)
Time Frame: 20 weeks
A self-report measure of valuing. Higher values represent a better outcome.
20 weeks
WAAQ (Work related Acceptance and Action Questionnaire)
Time Frame: 20 weeks
A self-report measure of work related psychological flexibility. Higher values represent a better outcome.
20 weeks
AAQII (Acceptance and Action Questionnaire)
Time Frame: 20 weeks
A self-report measure of general psychological inflexibility. Lower values represent a better outcome.
20 weeks
SCS (Self Compassion Scale)
Time Frame: 20 weeks
A self-report measure of self compassion. Higher values represent a better outcome.
20 weeks
SPS (Sense of Preparedness Scale)
Time Frame: 20 weeks
A self-report measure of preparedness for potential future events. Higher values represent a better outcome.
20 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Helen Bolderston, Bournemouth University

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

February 14, 2018

Primary Completion (Actual)

January 1, 2022

Study Completion (Actual)

January 1, 2022

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

November 13, 2018

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

November 28, 2018

First Posted (Actual)

November 30, 2018

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

March 2, 2022

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 1, 2022

Last Verified

March 1, 2022

More Information

Terms related to this study

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 1819/IRASSR/1

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

Undecided

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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