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Study Protocol for a Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial of a Psychosocial Care Intervention in Intensive Care

Integrated Psychosocial Care in Intensive Care: Piloting of an Innovative Care Approach (IPS Pilot) - Study Protocol for a Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial

Status
Active, not recruiting
Phases
NA
Study type
Interventional
Source
ClinicalTrials.gov
Registry ID
NCT06733493
Acronym
IPS-Pilot
Enrollment
375
Registered
2024-12-13
Start date
2024-08-01
Completion date
2025-07-31
Last updated
2025-07-01

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

Conditions

Intensive Care Units (ICUs), Psychosocial Health, Psychosocial Intervention

Keywords

health services research, psychosocial intervention, health personnel, INTENSIVE CARE UNIT, Critical Care

Brief summary

This Pilot-RCT is part of a feasibility study that aims to learn if the IPS-psychosocial care intervention and an RCT on its efficacy are feasible in patients, relatives and staff on icu wards. The Pilot-RCT will examine outcomes, that might indicate an improvement in psychosocial safety climate and other health- and wellbeing-related measures due to the administration of the intervention that is described in the following. The main question the Pilot-RCT aims to answer is: Is there evidence that the IPS intervention improves the psychosocial safety climate and other components of psychosocial well-being in ICU teams, patients and their relatives? Researchers will compare four intervention groups (icu wards with implementation of the IPS-Intervention) with four control groups (icu wards with regular supply of psychosocial care) to see if the comparison of two groups in this RCT is feasible. The IPS-Intervention consists of a ward psychologist who works as part of the ICU team and takes care of the staff, patients and relatives in accordance to the intervention manual that was developed in a prior phase of this project.

Interventions

BEHAVIORALintegrated psychosocial care

Employment of a psychologist in psychotherapeutic training as a member of the multiprofessional team at the ICU ward for the duration of one year. Tasks: Psychosocial Support for staff, patients and their relatives.

Sponsors

Institute of Social Medicine and Health Systems Research, University Hospital Magdeburg
CollaboratorUNKNOWN
University Hospital Berlin Charite
CollaboratorUNKNOWN
Magdeburg University Hospital, Germany
CollaboratorUNKNOWN
Harald Gündel
Lead SponsorOTHER

Study design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
SINGLE (Subject)

Masking description

Participating Healthcare-professionals can not be fully masked, since they are aware of the new team member in form of a ward psychologist (intervention) or aware that a ward psychologist was employed in another ward (control). Yet they are not aware about key efficacy components of the intervention (as the team integration, mere presence, ...)

Intervention model description

Multi-center study on 3 sites and 8 ICU wards, with cluster-randomization of intervention (n=4) and control wards (n=4). Data-collection in a mixed design: * Between-subject factor: Affiliation to intervention or control ICU ward * Between-subject factor: Affiliation to the group of healthcare professionals, relatives or patients * Within-subject factor: Time of data collection (baseline or follow-up) * Healthcare professionals: baseline (first 6 weeks of treatment) and follow-up (last 6 weeks of treatment) * Relatives: baseline (during treatment of their patient in the ICU and up to 4 weeks after), follow-up (4 months after completing baseline) * Patients: No baseline data-collection since this would produce a biased sample (only mildly impaired ICU patients), follow-up (4 months after ICU stay)

Eligibility

Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
Yes

Inclusion criteria

* Affiliation to one of the 8 participating ICU wards during the duration of the study, either by: occupation as a healthcare professional, admission as a patient, relation to an admitted patient

Exclusion criteria

* Age under 18 years old * Inability to give informed consent

Design outcomes

Primary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Psychosocial Safety ClimateBaseline (first 6 weeks of treatment) and Follow-Up (last 6 weeks of treatment)Psychosocial Safety Climate as perceived by ICU staff in the experimental and control group, measured with the German version of the Psychosocial Safety Climate (PSC-4) scale (Formazin, Ertel, Kersten, & Nübling, 2022). 4 items (eg. Senior management shows support for stress prevention through involvement and commitment) ranked on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = Strongly disagree, 5 = Strongly agree). A higher sum score of the 4 items (Min = 4, Max = 20) indicates a more positive psychosocial safety climate
Intention to leaveBaseline (first 6 weeks of treatment) and Follow-Up (last 6 weeks of treatment)Healthcare Professionals' Intention to leave their workplace, profession or reduce their working time, measured with the questions from the Nurses Early Exit (NEXT) study (Simon, Tackenberg, Hasselhorn, Kümmerling, Büscher, & Müller, 2005). 3 items ranked on a 5-point Likert-scale. A higher sum score (Min=3, Max=15) indicates a higher turnover intention.
Perceived WellbeingHealthcare Professionals: Baseline and Follow-Up; Relatives: Baseline and Follow-Up; Patients: 4 months after ICU stayHealthcare professionals', patients', and relatives' perceived well-being, measured with the german version of the WHO-5 (World Health Organization-Five) wellbeing index (Brähler, Mühlan, Albani, & Schmidt, 2005). 5 items rated on a 6-point Likert scale ranging from 0 (At no time) to 5 (All of the time). Higher overall sumscores (Min=0, Max=25) indicate better well-being.
Health-related quality of lifeHealthcare Professionals: Baseline and Follow-Up; Relatives: Baseline and Follow-Up; Patients: 4 months after ICU stayHealthcare professionals', patients', and relatives' perceived health-related quality of life, measured with the german version of the Short-Form Health-Related Survey (SF-12, Drixler, Morfeld, Glaesmer, Brähler, Wirtz, 2020). 12 items with a mixed response format (2-6 options) that can be assigned to the Physical Component Summary (PCS) and Mental Component Summary (MCS). PCS and MCS are standardized (Mean = 50, SD = 10). Higher scores indicate better physical or mental health-related quality of life.
Perceived StressHealthcare Professionals: Baseline (first 6 weeks of treatment) and Follow-Up (last 6 weeks of treatment); Relatives: Baseline (during first 8 months of treatment, individually: during or up to 4 weeks after ICU admission), Follow-Up: 4 months after BaseHealthcare professionals', patients' and relatives' perception of stress, measured with the german version of the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10, Klein, Brähler, Dreier, Reinecke, Müller, Schmutzer, Wölfling, & Beutel, 2016). 10 items that are rated on a 5-point Likert scale from 0 (Never) to 4 (Very often). Higher total scores (Min=0, Max=40) reflect higher perceived stress.
Depression / AnxietyHealthcare Professionals: Baseline and Follow-Up; Relatives: Baseline and Follow-Up; Patients: 4 months after ICU stayHealthcare professionals', patients', and relatives' perceived depressive and anxiety symptoms, measured with the german version of the patient health questionnaire (PHQ-4, Löwe, 2015). 4 items rated on a 4-point Likert scale from 0 (Not at all) to 3 (Nearly every day). Higher total scores (Min=0, Max=12) indicate more severe psychological distress.
Work-related consequences of strainBaseline (first 6 weeks of treatment) and Follow-Up (last 6 weeks of treatment)Emotional and cognitive irritation as perceived by ICU staff in the experimental and control group, measured with the irritation scale to measure consequencey of work-related strain (Mohr, Rigotti, & Müller, 2007). 8 items rated on a 7-point Likert scale from 1 (Strongly disagree) to 7 (Strongly agree). Higher total scores for the overall irritation scale (Min=8, Max=56), Emotional Irritation subscale (5 items, Min=5, Max=35) and Cognitive Irritation (3 items, Min=3, Max=21) indicate higher levels of irritation.
Self-efficacy, optimism and pessimismHealthcare Professionals: Baseline and Follow-Up; Relatives: Baseline and Follow-Up; Patients: 4 months after ICU stayHealthcare professionals', patients', and relatives' perceived self-efficacy, optimism and pessimism measured with the german self-efficacy, optimism and pessimism questionnaire (SWOP-K9, Scholler, Fliege, & Klapp, 1999). 9 items rated on a 4-point scale from 1 (Does not apply at all) to 4 (Applies completely) and are divided into the subscales self-efficacy, optimism and pessimism. Higher subscale means (Min=1, Max=4) for self-efficacy and optimism indicate better psychological resources; higher pessimism subscale means indicate worse outcomes.
Team cohesion at workBaseline (first 6 weeks of treatment) and Follow-Up (last 6 weeks of treatment)Team cohesion in the ICU as perceived by ICU staff in the experimental and control group, measured with the Erlangen Team Cohesion at work scale (ETC, Lieb, Erim, & Morawa, 2024). 13 items rated on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = Strongly disagree, 5 = Strongly agree) and can be divided into the subsales Collegial Solidarity and Unity and Problem Management. A higher overall sum score (Min=13, Max=65) or higher subscale means (Min=1, Max=5) indicate stronger team cohesion.

Countries

Germany

Outcome results

None listed

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