Psychological support during a pandemic: an intervention for hospital teams.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic placed unprecedented stress on healthcare professionals and resulted in teams being scattered by shielding, working from home and redeployment. The Recovery, Readjustment and Reintegration programme (R3P) was implemented and evaluated in an acute NHS hospital Trust with the aim of supporting those staff involved. AIMS: To explore the impact of offering themed reflective sessions to staff in an acute hospital and to disseminate this learning for application in other settings and future pandemics. METHODS: During the initial recovery phase of the pandemic, all Trust staff were invited to attend an R3P where themed discussions were facilitated by psychologists. Feedback was requested pre- and post-session, and a mixed-methods design was followed to gain quantitative and qualitative information. RESULTS: A total of 430 staff members attended an R3P between April 2021 and January 2022. A significant majority found attendance helpful and agreed that it had provided them with the opportunity to reflect on their own and their teams' experience of pandemic working and led them to feel more supported by their organization. CONCLUSIONS: Finding meaning in experiences through facilitated reflective discussion can help limit the negative psychological impact of working in an acute hospital during a pandemic. Staff are likely to benefit from such opportunities in any future pandemic recovery phase.

Evaluating the effectiveness and acceptability of information and therapy guides for improving the psychosocial well-being of people with facial palsy.

OBJECTIVES: Facial palsy (FP) can have a negative impact on an individual's psychological and social well-being, irrespective of esthetic severity. There is a lack of psychological interventions tailored specifically for this population and individuals with FP report difficulties accessing specialist psychological treatment. This paper describes a pilot study evaluating the effectiveness, acceptability, and feasibility of information and therapy guides for this population. DESIGN: Quasi-experimental, repeated measures design. METHODS: Six separate information and therapy guides were designed, drawing on cognitive behavioral therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy, and social skills training approaches. These were tested by 132 participants with FP, over a 4-to-6-week period. Participants completed self-report measures assessing psychological well-being, social function, and appearance-related distress before and after the testing period, as well as provided feedback on the perceived effectiveness, acceptability, and feasibility of the intervention. RESULTS: After completing an information and therapy guide, participants reported significant improvements in psychological well-being and social function, as well as improvements in appearance-related distress. Ninety percent of participants reported having found it helpful to complete a guide, while 79.7% reported feeling more able to cope with FP and 95.3% agreed that the guide had been easy to understand and use. CONCLUSIONS: Self-guided information and therapy guides are an acceptable and effective intervention for improving the psychosocial well-being of people with FP. They provide a low-intensity, universal, and cost-effective option for supporting the psychological needs of this population. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT03943953.

Perception in noise with the Digisonic SP cochlear implant: Clinical trial of Saphyr processor's upgraded signal processing.

OBJECTIVES: In 2012, Bergeron et al. presented the outcomes of a study where speech recognition abilities were compared between the four major cochlear implant manufacturers from comparable samples assessed with the same protocols. At this moment, results showed no significant difference in speech perception between devices in quiet and in different noise conditions. But, while most devices appeared only slightly disturbed by the presence of a low to moderate noise level, the Oticon Medical device appeared significantly more sensitive to a degraded environment. In 2013, the signal processing strategy of this device has been upgraded. This study proposes to assess the benefits derived from this upgrade. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study involves eighteen adults; most were also part of the 2012 study. All were tested before the implementation of the new signal processing strategy, immediately following the implementation of the strategy and after a one-month experience with the strategy. The same speech recognition test and conditions used in the 2012 study were applied, that is the HINT in quiet and in noise at +10, +5 and 0dB signal to noise ratio. Subjective impressions on the upgraded strategy were also gathered. RESULTS: The study evidences similar performance for speech perception in quiet, but significant improvements for speech perception in noise with the new processing strategy compared to the original. Subjective reports confirm this improvement in more challenging conditions. CONCLUSION: The high sensitivity to a degraded environment observed with the original Oticon Medical device has been significantly reduced by the introduction of more efficient noise reduction processing strategies.