Digital Interventions to Understand and Mitigate Stress Response

Unity Health Toronto

Status: Completed

Conditions: Stress Reaction; Acute; Stress Response Among Nursing Professionals During the COVID-19; Distress, Emotional

Treatments: Behavioral: Digital Intervention Group

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT05923398

22-279

Details and patient eligibility

About

Stress, anxiety, distress, and burnout are exceptionally high among healthcare workers at the frontline of the COVID-19 pandemic. The understanding of factors underlying distress and resilience in complex workplace contexts is limited, and there are limited evidence-based interventions for stress and moral distress among frontline healthcare workers. The purpose of this study is to use a Digital Intervention Suite (a combination of Virtual Reality [VR], a web-based platform, and a wearable [Oura Ring]) to understand and reduce the experience of stress/distress faced by nursing professionals.

Full description

The purpose of this study is to use a Digital Intervention Suite (a combination of Virtual Reality [VR], a web-based platform, and a wearable [Oura Ring]) to understand and reduce the experience of stress/distress faced by nursing professionals. This study involves participation in an in-person VR setup and the use of an app and a wearable device over the duration of the study (14+ weeks). The immersive VR component of the study involves a virtual experience of navigating a challenging workplace scenario to understand stress response and provide an overview of interventions that can be used to reduce workplace stress. Upon completion of the in-person VR visit, participants will continue to use the app and the wearable for the study duration to understand stress responses in their actual workplaces. Participants will have real-time access to their essential data on wellness collected through the app and wearable (e.g., sleep, activity, physiological signals, anxiety symptoms). The Digital Intervention Suite (combined use of these three components: VR, app, and wearable) is essential for a thorough understanding of stress and moral distress. This is a de-identified study, and the team will only have access to de-identified data for analysis at the end of the study.

Enrollment: 100 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

1. Registered nurses (RNs) or registered practical nurses (RPNs) who are currently employed at a healthcare institution in Ontario.
2. Ownership of a smartphone.

Exclusion criteria

1. History of seizures (except febrile seizure).
2. Use of electronic medical devices (e.g., cardiac pacemakers, hearing aids, and defibrillators).
3. A score of ≥ 15 on the Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) scale
4. A score of ≥ 20 on the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9).

Trial design

Primary purpose: Other

Allocation: N/A

Interventional model: Single Group Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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100 participants in 1 patient group

Experimental Group

Experimental group

Description:

During the duration of the study, all participants will use the Digital Intervention Suite (a web-based component, a VR platform, and wearable device) to measure passive and active data, such as: psychological variables (e.g., moral distress, anxiety, and depression) and physiological variables (e.g., heart rate and sleep).

Treatment:

Behavioral: Digital Intervention Group