Peer Champion Support for Hospital Staff During and After the COVID-19 Pandemic

Summary

Experience from the 2003 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak taught that healthcare workers (HCWs) often experience chronic stress effects for months or years after such an event, and that supporting HCWs requires attention to the marathon of occupational stress, not just the sprint of dramatic stressors that occur while infections are dominating the news. This study will test if the well-being of hospital workers facing a novel coronavirus outbreak is improved by adding either of two interventions: (1) Peer Resilience Champions (PRC): an interdisciplinary team of professionals who actively monitor for early signs of heightened stress within clinical teams, liaise between staff and senior management to improve organizational responsiveness, and provide direct support and teaching (under the supervision of experts in resilience, infection control, and professional education). Investigators will test the effectiveness of this PRC Intervention by rolling it out to different parts of the hospital in stages and comparing levels of burnout before and after the intervention reaches particular teams and units (a stepped wedge design). By the end of the study, PRC Support will have been provided to all clinical and research staff and many learners (\> 6,000 people). Note that the provision of PRC support will be directed to the entire organization. The research portion of the study is the evaluation of PRC support through a repeated survey completed by consenting staff. Investigators will test the effectiveness of the PRC by measuring trends in burnout and other effects of stress over the course of the study in a subgroup of hospital workers (as many as consent, target \~1000 people) through an online questionnaire (called "How Are You?"). (2) The second intervention is an enriched version of the "How Are You?" Survey, which provides personalized feedback about coping, interpersonal interactions and moral distress. Participants will be randomized (1:1) to receive the shorter Express Survey (identifying data and outcome measures only), or the Enriched survey (all of the Express measures plus additional measures with feedback based on responses). It is hypothesized that both the PRC intervention and the Enriched Survey intervention will help prevent or reduce instances of burnout in HCWs.

Conditions

• Burnout

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Peer Resilience Champion

PRC is supplied to everyone and provides support to hospital staff during the COVID-19 pandemic in a stepped-wedge design.

BEHAVIORAL

Enriched Survey Feedback

This intervention provides feedback based on answers to questionnaires to those in the Enriched Feedback arm of the study.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)

  collaborator OTHER_GOV

• Mount Sinai Hospital, Canada

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Robert G Maunder · Sinai Health

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

NONE

Model

CROSSOVER

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2020-07-27

Primary Completion

2022-05-16

Completion

2023-07-27

Countries

• Canada

Study Locations