Skip to content

Psychological Intervention on Burnout in ICU Caregivers

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

Status
Completed
Phases
NA
Study type
Interventional
Source
ClinicalTrials.gov
Registry ID
NCT01959750
Enrollment
166
Registered
2013-10-10
Start date
2009-04-30
Completion date
2013-09-30
Last updated
2013-10-10

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Anxiety, Burnout, Depression

Brief summary

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.

Interventions

BEHAVIORALproblem-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

Sponsors

University Hospital, Geneva
Lead SponsorOTHER

Study design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
SUPPORTIVE_CARE
Masking
DOUBLE (Investigator, Outcomes Assessor)

Eligibility

Sex/Gender
ALL
Healthy volunteers
Yes

Inclusion criteria

* all ICU caregivers rrom the University Hospital of Geneva

Exclusion criteria

* refusals

Design outcomes

Primary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Measurement of the changes in the levels of anxiety, depression, and burnout in nurses and nursing auxiliaries.At the beginning , at the end and 6 months after the end of the intervention.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.

Secondary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Composite measurement of the changes of ICU activity and absenteeism before, during, just after and six months after the intervention.4 three-months time periods (cf. Description).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.

Other

MeasureTime frameDescription
Measurement of staff quitting their jobsAt the end of the interventionWe identified how many persons had quitted the ICU between the beginning and the end of the intervention (inclusion time).

Countries

Switzerland

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: Feb 4, 2026