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Psychosocial Peer Support to Address Mental Health and Burnout of Health Care Workers Affected by COVID-19: A Qualitative Evaluation

Health care workers in the U.S. are experiencing alarming rates of burnout. Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic has worsened this issue. Psychosocial peer-support programs that address general distress and are tailored to health care systems are needed. A Care for Caregivers (CFC) Program was develop...

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Autores principales: Simms, Lea, Ottman, Katherine E., Griffith, James L., Knight, Michael G., Norris, Lorenzo, Karakcheyeva, Viktoriya, Kohrt, Brandon A.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10002014/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36901545
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20054536
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author Simms, Lea
Ottman, Katherine E.
Griffith, James L.
Knight, Michael G.
Norris, Lorenzo
Karakcheyeva, Viktoriya
Kohrt, Brandon A.
author_facet Simms, Lea
Ottman, Katherine E.
Griffith, James L.
Knight, Michael G.
Norris, Lorenzo
Karakcheyeva, Viktoriya
Kohrt, Brandon A.
author_sort Simms, Lea
collection PubMed
description Health care workers in the U.S. are experiencing alarming rates of burnout. Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic has worsened this issue. Psychosocial peer-support programs that address general distress and are tailored to health care systems are needed. A Care for Caregivers (CFC) Program was developed at an American metropolitan university hospital and outpatient health care system. The CFC program trains “Peer Caregivers” and managers and has four components: the identification of colleagues in need of support; psychological first aid; linkage to resources; and the promotion of hope among colleagues experiencing demoralization. Qualitative interviews (n = 18) were conducted with Peer Caregivers and Managers participating in the initial piloting of the program. Results suggest that the CFC program shifts the organizational culture, teaches staff skills for recognizing and supporting others in distress, and supports those staff who are already providing these services informally. Findings suggest that staff distress resulted primarily from external factors and secondarily from internal organizational stressors. External stressors were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Although the program has promise for addressing staff burnout, other organizational efforts are needed to simultaneously promote staff wellness. Ultimately, psychosocial peer support programs for health care workers are feasible and potentially impactful, but also require other systemic changes within a health care system to improve and sustain staff well-being.
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spelling pubmed-100020142023-03-11 Psychosocial Peer Support to Address Mental Health and Burnout of Health Care Workers Affected by COVID-19: A Qualitative Evaluation Simms, Lea Ottman, Katherine E. Griffith, James L. Knight, Michael G. Norris, Lorenzo Karakcheyeva, Viktoriya Kohrt, Brandon A. Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Health care workers in the U.S. are experiencing alarming rates of burnout. Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic has worsened this issue. Psychosocial peer-support programs that address general distress and are tailored to health care systems are needed. A Care for Caregivers (CFC) Program was developed at an American metropolitan university hospital and outpatient health care system. The CFC program trains “Peer Caregivers” and managers and has four components: the identification of colleagues in need of support; psychological first aid; linkage to resources; and the promotion of hope among colleagues experiencing demoralization. Qualitative interviews (n = 18) were conducted with Peer Caregivers and Managers participating in the initial piloting of the program. Results suggest that the CFC program shifts the organizational culture, teaches staff skills for recognizing and supporting others in distress, and supports those staff who are already providing these services informally. Findings suggest that staff distress resulted primarily from external factors and secondarily from internal organizational stressors. External stressors were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Although the program has promise for addressing staff burnout, other organizational efforts are needed to simultaneously promote staff wellness. Ultimately, psychosocial peer support programs for health care workers are feasible and potentially impactful, but also require other systemic changes within a health care system to improve and sustain staff well-being. MDPI 2023-03-03 /pmc/articles/PMC10002014/ /pubmed/36901545 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20054536 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Simms, Lea
Ottman, Katherine E.
Griffith, James L.
Knight, Michael G.
Norris, Lorenzo
Karakcheyeva, Viktoriya
Kohrt, Brandon A.
Psychosocial Peer Support to Address Mental Health and Burnout of Health Care Workers Affected by COVID-19: A Qualitative Evaluation
title Psychosocial Peer Support to Address Mental Health and Burnout of Health Care Workers Affected by COVID-19: A Qualitative Evaluation
title_full Psychosocial Peer Support to Address Mental Health and Burnout of Health Care Workers Affected by COVID-19: A Qualitative Evaluation
title_fullStr Psychosocial Peer Support to Address Mental Health and Burnout of Health Care Workers Affected by COVID-19: A Qualitative Evaluation
title_full_unstemmed Psychosocial Peer Support to Address Mental Health and Burnout of Health Care Workers Affected by COVID-19: A Qualitative Evaluation
title_short Psychosocial Peer Support to Address Mental Health and Burnout of Health Care Workers Affected by COVID-19: A Qualitative Evaluation
title_sort psychosocial peer support to address mental health and burnout of health care workers affected by covid-19: a qualitative evaluation
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10002014/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36901545
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20054536
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