A Randomized Controlled Evaluation of a Compassion-course for Healthcare Professionals

Reactions to severe stress is one of the most common causes of sick leave in Sweden. Previous research has shown that compassion interventions for staff can affect work-related stress by increased self-care, better self-awareness and an increased healthy attitude, however, Swedish studies on the subject are scarce.

Compassion is a motivation to reduce suffering in oneself and others characterized by a warm, understanding, and respectful attitude. In addition to beneficial effects for the staff, a compassion-oriented approach, has shown to improve the relationship between patient and staff, increase patient satisfaction with care and reduce patient anxiety and stress. As a result of the covid-19 pandemic, healthcare professionals have been exposed to difficult physical and mental work conditions that cause feelings of stress and inadequacy. In the long run, increased stress can cause fatigue and increased number of sick leaves. This can in turn contribute to increased stress for the staff who remain working and difficulties to recruit new staff, which make the situation worse. There is a lack of interventions for staff aimed at preventing stress-related health issues, enabling recovery and reduce mental suffering linked to a stressful work situations. The aim of this study is to find a method that help healthcare providers cope with stress of conscience in relation to stressful work situations, particularly during the current covid-19 pandemic. A five week internet-based compassion course of five modules will be conducted and evaluated with the aim of exploring whether the course contributes to reduce stress of conscience and work-related stress, and increases the levels of professional quality of life and self-compassion among healthcare professionals. The internet-based compassion course will be compared with: one group that is on a waiting list for ten weeks and then receives an internet-based general stress management course and one group that participate in the general stress management course.

Inclusion criteria

The inclusion criteria will be as follows: the participants work directly with patients full-time or part-time, score 45 points or higher on the primary outcome measure Stress of Conscience Questionnaire (SCQ), are proficient in Swedish, have the requisite time to attend a digital course, and accept the course's format.

The exclusion criteria include being partially or fully on sick leave due to stress.

All criteria are assessed on the basis of self-assessment forms of the participants, but in case of uncertainty, follow-up questions can be done by phone.