JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

It is well established that frontline healthcare staff are particularly at risk of stress. Resilience is important to help staff to manage daily challenges and to protect against burnout.

Objective:

This study aimed to assess the usability and user perceptions of a resilience training web app developed to support healthcare keyworkers in understanding their own stress response and to help them put into place strategies to manage stress and to build resilience.

Methods:

Nurses (n=7) and other keyworkers (n=1), the target users for the resilience training web app, participated in the usability evaluation. Participants completed a pre training questionnaire capturing basic demographic information and then used the training before completing a post training feedback questionnaire exploring the impact and usability of the web app.

Results:

Many keyworkers 6 out of 8 (75%) rated their current role as “sometimes” stressful. All 8 (100%) keyworkers found the training easy to understand, 5 out of 7 (71%) agreed that the training increased their understanding of both stress and resilience. Six out of 8 (75%) agreed that the resilience model had helped them to understand what resilience is. Many of the keyworkers 6 out of 8 (75%) agreed that the content was relevant to them. Furthermore 6 out of 8 (75%) agreed that they were likely to act to develop their resilience following completion of the training.

Conclusions:

This study tested the usability of a web app for resilience training specifically targeting NHS Keyworkers. This work preceded a larger scale usability study, and it is hoped this study will help guide other studies to develop similar programs in clinical settings.