A mobile application to “thank” increases the well-being of staff working in the intensive care units

MADRID, 29 October (EUROPA PRESS) –

A mobile application to ‘thank’ increases the well-being of staff working in Intensive Care Units (ICUs), as shown by a study conducted by researchers from the WANT Psychosocial Prevention and Healthy Organizations team of the Jaume I de Castelló University, Carmen Soler and Marisa Salanova, and the expert from the International University of Catalonia, Isabella Meneghel, in collaboration with the Hospital Optimista Foundation.

The project, launched in October 2019, saw the participation of 84 professionals from the San Juan de Dios hospitals in Córdoba, Montilla (Córdoba); Rey Juan Carlos (Madrid) and Santa Bárbara (Ciudad Real). Furthermore, it is part of the actions carried out in the project of the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and has the active participation of the Optimista Hospital Foundation in the development of the app that encourages gratitude together with its technological partner Feedbalia.

In addition to the quantitative measurement of the levels of intra-role, extra-role and quality of service performance that allowed to verify an increase in the commitment and well-being of the participants, the study had a qualitative analysis which revealed that professionals have He felt that the ICU work environment had improved and that it served to become aware of his strengths and the daily work and acts of kindness of the rest of the group. The benefits were also extended over time, according to tests carried out weeks later.

The research had an experimental group and a control group and three evaluations were carried out (one before and one immediately after to know the changes in levels of happiness, well-being remembered and experienced; optimism and scale of performance) and a third after three weeks of intervention to evaluate the effects on time of the appreciation program. The duration was four months in total (with three weeks of surgery and three weeks of follow-up) for both groups.

Each day, for four weeks, participating ICU professionals thought about actions taken by their colleagues that could be related to any of the 24 strengths proposed by Seligman and Peterson (passion for learning, generosity, curiosity or humility) and that would have caused them a feeling of gratitude and they gave thanks via the mobile application.

Although health care workers felt public support during the first months of the pandemic, the study revealed the importance of support, empathy and gratitude among work teams, and increased resilience among participating units was found. .

The main focus of the UCI professional gratitude program was to enhance some of the strengths, such as gratitude and optimism, as well as foster the emotional well-being of the professionals and analyze their impact on performance.

Its purpose was to become aware of the positive aspects of daily life, its possible causes, form gratitude and analyze its impact on well-being, in order to contribute to the evaluation of tools that help transform health organizations in multiple environments. . to greet. In short, moving from a culture of complaint to a culture of gratitude.