Abstract
Background: The COVID-19 crisis has had a considerable mental health impact on healthcare workers. High levels of psychological distress are expected to have a significant impact on healthcare systems, warranting the need for evidence-based psychological interventions targeting stress and fostering resilience in this population. Online cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) has proved to be effective in targeting stress and promoting resilience. However, online CBT programs targeting stress in healthcare workers are lacking.Objective: The aim of our study is to evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of an internet-based CBT intervention, the My Health Too program we developed during the first COVID-19 epidemic peak in France.Methods: We recruited 10 participants among Alsace region hospital staff during the first peak of the pandemic in France. They were given 1 week to test the website and were then asked to answer an internet survey and a semi-structured phone interview.Results: We conducted a thematic analysis of the content from the phone interviews. Major themes were identified, discussed and coded: the technical aspects, the content of the website and its impact on participants’ emotions and everyday life. Overall, the participants reported finding the website easy to use and interactive. They described the resources as easy to understand, readily usable, and useful in inducing calm and in helping them practice self-compassion.Conclusion: Our results suggest that the My Health Too online CBT program is highly feasible and acceptable to healthcare workers during the highly stressful times of the pandemic peak. The feedback provided helped to improve the program whose efficacy is to be tested.
Highlights
Healthcare workers are frequently exposed to job stressors which have been identified as risk factors for burnout, sleep disturbances and depression (Andela et al, 2016; Dong et al, 2017)
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has significantly increased the amount of stressors on healthcare workers worldwide as the number of people infected increased and the disease reached a pandemic status (Hall, 2020)
To our knowledge, internet-based cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) interventions targeting stress reduction tailored for the healthcare workers in the context of COVID-19 are lacking. To address this unmet need, we developed an open-access CBT-based unguided internet program “My Health Too”, which aimed at promoting resilience and reducing stress in healthcare workers (Weiner et al, 2020)
Summary
Healthcare workers are frequently exposed to job stressors (e.g., workload, shift work, patients’ and relatives’ enquiries, patients’ suffering, and team collaboration problems) which have been identified as risk factors for burnout, sleep disturbances and depression (Andela et al, 2016; Dong et al, 2017). The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has significantly increased the amount of stressors on healthcare workers worldwide as the number of people infected increased and the disease reached a pandemic status (e.g., lack of beds and equipment, risk of contamination, and a significant number of deaths including the death of coworkers) (Hall, 2020). The same authors reported high prevalence rates of depression (50.7%), anxiety (44.7%), insomnia (36.1%), and stress-related symptoms (73.4%) (Liu et al, 2020) among Chinese healthcare professionals, especially nurses (Huang et al, 2020; Mo et al, 2020). A meta-analysis including 38 studies on mental health problems among healthcare workers during the pandemic has reported high prevalence rates for PTSD (49%), anxiety (40%), depression (37%), and distress (37%); these mental health issues affected those working directly with COVID-19 patients (Saragih et al, 2021). Online CBT programs targeting stress in healthcare workers are lacking
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