Evaluation of self-care skills training and solution-focused counselling for health professionals in psychiatric medicine: a pilot study

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this pilot study was to implement and to evaluate a self-care skills training with solution-focused counselling to support psychiatrists in handling their daily work challenges.

Methods: A total of 72 psychiatrists working in a psychiatric clinic were randomised in a single-blind trial to either an intervention group or a control group. Outcomes were measured at baseline and at the end of the training (follow-up 1: after 3 months; follow-up 2: after 6 months). A validated questionnaire including the Perceived Stress Questionnaire, the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire, Brief Resilient Coping Scale, Self-Efficacy Scale and the Quality of Relationship Inventory was used.

Results: Psychiatrists in the intervention group reached a significant reduction in perceived job stress (p = 0.01, d = 0.05), improvements in job satisfaction (p = 0.02, d = 0.04), resilience (p = 0.02, d = 0.04) and self-efficacy (p = 0.04, d = 0.02) from baseline to all follow-ups with no comparable results seen in the control group. Psychiatrists stated an improved quality of physician–patient relationship (e.g. support, conflict management; p < 0.05).

Conclusions: A self-care skills training, including solution-focused counselling, for psychiatrists was associated with significant improvements in perceived stress, job satisfaction, individual protective skills and quality of relationship to patients. This training is suitable to implement as a group training program for psychiatrists.

Keywords:

• Job satisfaction
• job strain
• mental health
• resilience
• self-care
• stress management

Acknowledgements

We thank all the physicians for participating in our study.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article.