Staff well-being during COVID-19
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Effectiveness of staff well-being interventions in response to COVID-19
IRAS ID
285956
Contact name
Ciaran Shannon
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Research and Development Office, Northern Health and Social Care Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 15 days
Research summary
The coronavirus outbreak (COVID-19) started in Wuhan in November 2019 and has since become a global health emergency (WHO, 2020). Health and Social Care Staff in Northern Ireland (HSCNI) will understandably have many new concerns relating to the outbreak, such as whether they have enough personal protection equipment, and how to best protect their families and patients from infection. HSCNI staff will need to be supported during and after the outbreak in order to safeguard their well-being and limit absence due to stress at a time when staff are needed most. The proposed study will measure staff well-being (e.g. anxiety, distress) amongst HSCNI staff throughout the outbreak using an online survey. Data on services used, and unmet needs will also be collected via this survey. These data will be collected at 4 time points separated by 3 month intervals during the outbreak phase. Summary results will be distributed to mental health service leads in the HSCNI Trusts promptly after each survey time point, thus enabling rapid changes to be made where the results suggest it would be beneficial to do so (e.g. target provision at particularly vulnerable staff groups, add further provision types). At time 1, psychology support providers will also be surveyed to establish their views on the usefulness of the provision that they delivered. Focus groups and interviews will be used to gain an in depth understanding of what it was like to provide or receive psychological supports within HSCNI during the COVID-19 outbreak. The overall results will be used by service leads to make sure that only effective mental health provision is offered and refinements are made where possible to improve effectiveness.
REC name
West of Scotland REC 5
REC reference
20/WS/0122
Date of REC Opinion
25 Aug 2020
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion