Workforce resilience supporting staff in managing stress: A coherent breathing intervention for the long-term care workforce.

BACKGROUND: Staff in long-term care (LTC) homes have long-standing stressors, such as short staffing and high workloads. These stressors increased during the COVID-19 pandemic; better resources are needed to help staff manage stress and well-being. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of a simple stress management strategy (coherent breathing). METHODS: We conducted a pre-post intervention study to evaluate a self-managed coherent breathing intervention from February to September 2022. The intervention included basic (breathing only) and comprehensive (breathing plus a biofeedback device) groups. Six hundred eighty-six participants were initially recruited (359 and 327 in the comprehensive and basic groups respectively) from 31 LTC homes in Alberta, Canada. Two hundred fifty-four participants completed pre-and post-intervention questionnaires (142 [55.9%] in comprehensive and 112 [44.1%] in basic). Participants were asked to use coherent breathing based on a schedule increasing from 2 to 10 min daily, 5-7 times a week over 8 weeks. Participants completed self-administered online questionnaires pre- and post-intervention to assess outcomes-stress, psychological distress, anxiety, depression, resilience, insomnia, compassion satisfaction, compassion fatigue, and burnout. We used a mixed-effects regression model to test the main effect of time (pre- and post-intervention) and group while testing the interaction between time and group and controlling for covariates. RESULTS: We found statistically significant changes from pre- to post-intervention in stress (b = -2.5, p < 0.001, 95% CI = -3.1, -1.9), anxiety (b = -0.5, p < 0.001, 95% CI = -0.7, -0.3), depression (b = -0.4, p < 0.001, 95% CI = -0.6, -0.2), insomnia (b = -1.5, p < 0.001, 95% CI = -2.1, -0.9), and resilience (b = 0.2, p < 0.001, 95% CI = 0.1, 0.2). We observed no statistically significant differences between the two intervention groups on any outcome. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that coherent breathing is a promising strategy for improving stress-related outcomes and resilience. This intervention warrants further, more rigorous testing.

Changes in Health and Well-Being of Care Aides in Nursing Homes From a Pre-Pandemic Baseline in February 2020 to December 2021.

Nursing homes were profoundly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, influencing work outcomes of care aides who provide the most direct care. We compared care aides' quality of work life by conducting a repeated cross-sectional analysis of data collected in February 2020 and December 2021 from a stratified random sample of urban nursing homes in two Canadian provinces. We used two-level random-intercept repeated-measures regression models, adjusting for demographics and nursing home characteristics. 2348 and 1116 care aides completed the survey in February 2020 and December 2021, respectively. The 2021 sample had higher odds of reporting worked short-staffed daily to weekly in the previous month than the 2020 sample. The 2021 sample also had a small but significant drop in professional efficacy and mental health. Despite the worsening changes, our findings suggest that this workforce may have withstood the pandemic better than might be expected.

Rushing Care by Care Aides Associated With Experiences of Responsive Behaviors From Residents in Nursing Homes.

OBJECTIVES: Residents with cognitive impairment favor "slow care," so rushed care may cause additional responsive behaviors (eg, verbal threats, hitting) among residents. We assessed the association of rushed care (physical and social) by care aides with their experiences of responsive behaviors from residents. DESIGN: Cross-sectional analysis of survey data. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: A total of 3547 care aides (response rate: 69.97%) in 282 care units in a stratified random sample (health region, nursing home size, owner-operator model) of 87 urban nursing homes in Western Canada. METHODS: Data collection occurred between September 2019 and February 2020. The dependent variables were care aide self-report of 4 types of verbal and physical responsive behavior (yes/no). The independent variables were care aide self-report of rushed physical care (count, range = 0-6) and rushed social care (yes/no). We conducted a 2-level random-intercept logistic regression with each dependent variable, controlling for care aide, care unit, and nursing home characteristics. RESULTS: In their most recent shift, 2182 (61.5%) care aides reported having rushed at least 1 physical care task and 1782 (50.2%) reported having rushed talking with residents (social care task). When care aides rushed an additional physical care task, they had 8% higher odds of reporting having experienced yelling and screaming [odds ratio (OR) 1.08, 95% CI 1.01-1.15; P = .019]. When care aides rushed social care (talking with residents), they had 70% higher odds of reporting having experienced yelling and screaming (OR 1.70, 95% CI 1.28-2.25; P < .001). We observed the same pattern for the other types of responsive behaviors. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: Rushing of physical or social care tasks by care aides was associated with increased likelihood of responsive behaviors from residents. One approach to reducing both rushed care and resident responsive behaviors may be to improve the care environment for care aides and residents.