A Virtual Reality Relaxation Intervention for Clinical Staff

Summary

Clinical staff working in mental health services experience high levels of work-related stress, burnout and poor wellbeing. They may work long hours, experience stress directly related to the emotional demands of the role and clinical responsibility, experience physical and psychological burnout and may experience high rates of workplace violence. Poorer wellbeing and high burnout amongst mental health staff has been associated with poorer quality of patient care, higher absenteeism, higher turnover rates, and low morale. Virtual reality (VR) relaxation is a technique whereby experiences of pleasant/ calming environments are accessed via a head mounted display to promote relaxation. The use of VR relaxation facilities in the workplace may provide a pragmatic approach to enabling employees to de-stress, relax and optimise their mental wellbeing and may reduce turnover and improve stress related sick leave across the National Health Service (NHS) workforce.

The research will involve a pre-post-test of 5-weeks of VR relaxation for clinical staff working in mental health settings, including those working in inpatient settings and community teams. The pre-post-test will act as a feasibility trial, the primary aim is thereby to determine whether VR relaxation is feasible and acceptable amongst mental health staff. This feasibility study will evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of a 5-week course of weekly 20-minute sessions of VR relaxation for clinical staff. Feasibility and acceptability measures will be collected and summarised at the end of the trial, including percentage of those recruited who consent to take part, completion and drop-out rates, adverse events, and satisfaction with sessions. The secondary objective is to investigate the impact of the VR relaxation intervention on potential outcome measures for a randomised controlled trial (RCT), including perceived psychological stress, worry, psychological burnout, sleep quality and anxiety. The results from this study will inform a later trial by providing key parameters including recruitment, retention, acceptability, and adherence to the treatment protocol. Additionally, follow-up qualitative interviews will be conducted with staff who engaged in the VR and staff who withdrew, to develop an understanding of attitudes towards the VR relaxation intervention.

Conditions

• Psychological Burnout
• Stress, Psychological
• Mental Health Burden

Interventions

OTHER

Virtual Reality Relaxation

Participants will undergo a 5-week course of 20-min sessions of VR relaxation. The VR device used will be the Oculus Quest wireless head mounted display (HMD) with two handheld controllers. The HMD and software have been provided by a Germany based company called Magic Horizons. Participants will be asked to wear the HMD and will wear headphones to hear audio. Each session will involve participants experiencing two virtual environments designed to promote relaxation, at least one of which will have a small interactive component to aid engagement. Environments will focus on nature and will be paired with soothing music or guided meditation. For example, scenes might include dolphins dancing underwater, a beach with rock pools, waterfalls, a rainforest, green meadows with flowers, mountains with lakes and/or a sandy desert. Participants will be seated throughout all sessions.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• King's College London

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Simon Riches, PhD · King's College London

Study Design

Allocation

NA

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

NONE

Model

SINGLE_GROUP

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2022-12-01

Primary Completion

2023-09-30

Completion

2023-12-30

Countries

• United Kingdom

Study Locations