Recommendations for supporting healthcare workers' psychological well-being: Lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Healthcare workers are at risk of adverse mental health outcomes due to occupational stress. Many organizations introduced initiatives to proactively support staff's psychological well-being in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. One example is the STEADY wellness program, which was implemented in a large trauma centre in Toronto, Canada. Program implementors engaged teams in peer support sessions, psychoeducation workshops, critical incident stress debriefing, and community-building initiatives. As part of a project designed to illuminate the experiences of STEADY program implementors, this article describes recommendations for future hospital wellness programs. Participants described the importance of having the hospital and its leaders engage in supporting staff's psychological well-being. They recommended ways of doing so (e.g., incorporating conversations about wellness in staff onboarding and routine meetings), along with ways to increase program uptake and sustainability (e.g., using technology to increase accessibility). Results may be useful in future efforts to bolster hospital wellness programming.

Development of Research Core Competencies for Academic Practice Among Health Professionals: A Mixed-Methods Approach.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Of the 4 pillars of academic practice for nursing and allied health, research has been the least developed and no standard competency framework exists that is embedded in health professional scopes of practice. The objective of this article is to report on the preliminary development and pilot-testing of research and academic scholarship core competencies for nonphysician health professionals working within a large urban academic health sciences center. METHODS: We conducted an internal and external environmental scan and multiphase consultation process to develop research and academic core competencies for health professionals working within an interprofessional setting. RESULTS: The final framework outlines 3 levels of research proficiency (novice, proficient, and advanced) and the relevant roles, specific competencies, and observable actions and/or activities for each proficiency level. CONCLUSIONS: Organizations should consider the integration of the framework within performance management processes and the development of a road map and self-assessment survey to track progress over time and support health professionals with their academic practice goals.

Comparison and Literature Review of Occupational Stress in a Palliative Radiotherapy Clinic's Interprofessional Team, the Radiation Therapists, and the Nurses at an Academic Cancer Centre.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to assess the predisposing factors for occupational stress within the Rapid Response Radiotherapy Program (RRRP), radiation therapists (RTs), and registered nurses (RNs) at the Odette Cancer Centre (OCC). MATERIALS AND METHODS: All RRRP team members (n = 15, including radiation oncologists, residents, and students), RTs (n = 130), and ambulatory care nurses (n = 80) at the OCC were asked to complete a demographics form on professional background and three validated surveys designed to evaluate stress. The Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) was used to assess burnout in the workplace through assessment of personal accomplishment, emotional exhaustion, and depersonalization; the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) assessed psychological morbidity; and the Professional Quality of Life Scale (ProQOL) assessed compassion satisfaction, compassion fatigue, and burnout. Univariate general linear regression was used to determine significant demographic predictors for occupational stress, and one-way analysis of variance was used to compare stress among the three groups. RESULTS: The overall response rate was 28%: 80% for RRRP, 20% for RTs, and 31% for RNs. Females were more likely to report greater personal accomplishment (P = .0393). Being younger (P = .0041), male (P = .0056), having less professional experience (P = .008), and being in the RRRP (P = .0019) was associated with greater depersonalization. Greater self-reported spirituality was predictive of higher compassion satisfaction (P = .0064); those reporting no or lower spirituality experienced higher levels of burnout (P = .0053). Higher GHQ-12 scores (greater stress) were reported by participants that spend more of their work time with palliative patients, and lower GHQ-12 scores (less stress) was reported in participants that participated in stress-relieving activities. A significant difference between groups was only seen in the MBI scale assessing depersonalization (P = .0077), with the RRRP experiencing greater depersonalization. For burnout subscales, 59.0% (RNs), 40.0% (RRRP), and 58.3% (RTs) reported low levels of personal accomplishment; 50% (RNs), 20% (RRRP), and 25% (RTs) reported high levels of emotional exhaustion; and 86.3% (RNs), 53.3% (RRRP), and 66.7% (RTs) reported low levels of depersonalization. CONCLUSION: Greater psychological stress was seen in respondents that worked primarily with palliative patients. Individuals that identified themselves as being spiritual had higher professional satisfaction with work, whereas a detached response to professional practice was associated with being younger, male, having less work experience, and being a member of the RRRP team. Future initiatives should place emphasis on promoting stress-relieving activities, the necessity for stress management courses, and the overall importance of increasing awareness of the potential signs and causes of occupational stress.