Abstract
During the COVID-19 pandemic ICU nurses endure high levels of stress. VR relaxation (VRelax, containing 360° immersive environments) provides an easy-to-use and effective means to induce positive affect and reduce perceived stress. We investigated feasibility and immediate effect on perceived stress of VRelax use by ICU nurses during work shifts. ICU nurses working with COVID-19 patients in an academic hospital could use VRelax as a 10-min break during their shift. Primary outcome was the difference between perceived stress immediately before and after VRelax use measured by a single-question VAS-stress scale. Statistically significant difference of the mean VAS-stress before and after use was determined using the paired t student test. A socio-demographic questionnaire, a questionnaire on perceived stress and stress resilience and VRelax user experiences were sent by email. Eighty-six (26%) nurses used VRelax at least once; 77% (N=66) of these filled out the VAS-stress scale before and after use of VRelax. Mean perceived stress lowered with 39.9% after use of VRelax (mean difference=14.0, SD=13.3, p<0.005). Mean score on the perceived stress scale-10 was 11.4 (SD=6.50), mean score on the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale-10 was 29.0 (SD=5.51). Sixty-two percentage of the ICU nurses thought VRelax was helpful to reduce stress. Main barrier for use was a high workload. It is feasible for nurses to use VRelax in an ICU context. VRelax is an effective intervention to reduce immediate perceived stress and is of added value in stressful situations as during the COVID-19 pandemic, inducing a positive affective state and lowering perceived stress.
Highlights
Long-term exposure to high levels of stress is detrimental to the mental health and sustainable employability of healthcare professionals (Dewa et al, 2014)
We aimed to investigate whether use of VR relaxation intervention (VRelax) by ICU nurses working with COVID-19 patients would be feasible during ICU work shifts
Eighty VRelax users filled out the 10-item Perceived Stress Scale, 75 VRelax users filled out the 10-item ConnorDavidson Resilience Scale
Summary
Long-term exposure to high levels of stress is detrimental to the mental health and sustainable employability of healthcare professionals (Dewa et al, 2014). Chronic stress is associated with impaired cognitive functioning and mental disorders such as anxiety and depression (Eisler and Polak, 1971; Weber et al, 2009) This makes the expected burden on the individual healthcare professionals (e.g., mental health complaints and decreased job performance) and the burden on society (e.g., personnel shortages, overwhelmed healthcare systems, and additional healthcare costs) substantial (West et al, 2018). This signifies the need to improve the effects of stress associated with the COVID-19 pandemic and future outbreaks on healthcare workers
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