PROACTIVE: Psychological support for intensive care nurses.
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Psychological support for Intensive care nurses during the COVID pandemic: The PROACTIVE feasibility trial
IRAS ID
301011
Contact name
Andrew Bates
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 2 months, 1 days
Research summary
The psychological health of front-line healthcare workers, and in particular nurses, caring for critically ill patients with COVID-19, has deteriorated during the pandemic. This reflects trends observed following a previous respiratory virus outbreak in 2003, where psychological symptoms were observed in up to 45% of healthcare staff. This subsequently resulted in reduced patient contact, absenteeism and substance abuse disorders being reported up to 26 months later.
Despite the availability of supportive interventions, uptake is poor, and none have been demonstrated to be beneficial in randomised controlled trials. Therefore, to mitigate these problems, and the subsequent risk of staff shortages within critical care, a new approach needs to be taken to support these staff acceptably and effectively, to avoid potential crises.
In addition to immediate staff support, interventions to mitigate the longer-term consequences are urgently needed. With limited resources and high numbers of healthcare workers suffering psychological distress, an effective and scalable group intervention is needed.
PROACTIVE will combine a minimally intrusive psychological therapy, the FLASH technique (FT), (to address existing traumatic symptoms) and guided imagery training (to enhance future resilience) in an online group-based setting. FT is a recently developed technique, based upon NICE recommended eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing.
Participants will attend five intervention sessions, four weekly sessions and a further session one month later. Participants will complete psychological assessments at baseline, and then six months after session one.
The primary outcome will be to assess the feasibility and acceptability of delivering these techniques to intensive care nurses.The secondary outcome will be to assess the effect the intervention has on mental wellbeing, post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms, anxiety, depression, burnout, resilience and alcohol and substance abuse between baseline and six months.
Results from PROACTIVE will inform the design of a future larger-scale trial which will aim to assess the effectiveness of the intervention.
REC name
London - Bromley Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
21/LO/0846
Date of REC Opinion
8 Dec 2021
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion