Supporting resident well-being on and outside the ICU during the COVID-19 pandemic: the use and value of institutional interventions and individual strategies

Figures & data

Box 1. Institutional interventions involved in the well-being program

Institutional interventions	Approach	Self-reported use, in total (N, %) from 103 residents	Self-reported use of 45 ICU residents (N, %)	Self-reported use of 58 non-ICU residents (N, %)
Peer group meetings for residents	Group sessions with limited members, available both online and face-to-face	28 (28%)	9 (20%)	19 (33%)
Hospital-wide peer support	Support by trained and experienced medical specialists to ‘check in’ and collegially sit together with a resident; directly available (within 24 hours) for up to maximum three sessions; no therapeutic goals.	2 (2%)	2 (4%)	0 (0%)
Lectures on crisis management by a medical psychologist and trauma expert	Real-life and online lectures by a (war and pandemic) trauma expert sharing knowledge about how health-care professionals tend to respond to trauma and offering guidance in how to deal with the COVID-19 crisis as a health-care professional.	44 (43%)	18 (40%)	26 (45%)
Well-being Crisis Flyer	Provision of a flyer offering information and tips and tricks on how to stay well in times of crisis	29 (28%)	12 (27%)	17 (29%)
Guided debriefing by medical psychologist during the patient handover	Guided debriefing sessions with the whole health-care team after night shifts; encouraging to share experiences to emotionally and mentally distress.	17 (17%)	5 (11%)	12 (21%)
24/7 telephone line for psychological support	Telephone support was available for direct psychological help.	0 (0%)	0 (0%)	0 (0%)

Table 1. Response rates of participants throughout the study time (from April 6 to 5 June 2020)

	Date	Complete	Incomplete	No response	Residents invited	Response rate	N of participating residents working on ICU
1	6 April	44	2	48	94	46,8%	9 (20%)
2	10 April	32	3	81	116	27,6%	8 (25%)
3	17 April	44	3	98	145	30,3%	15 (34%)
4	24 April	46	2	155	203	22,7%	21 (46%)
5	8 May	48	2	153	203	23,6%	13 (27%)
6	5 June	40	1	162	203	19,7%	9 (23%)
Total surveys		254	13	697	964	26,3%	75 (30%)
Total N of residents		103	N/A	100	203	50,7%	45 (44%, with 16 residents switching from ICU to non ICU)

Figure 1. Residents’ average perception of their mental, physical and emotional well-being throughout the study period (April–June), on a scale from 1 to 5

Values represent the mean (SD) of residents’ well-being at the first measurement, and last measurement.