JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Healthcare workers continue to experience heightened levels of distress and burnout, which contribute to higher levels of job dissatisfaction, turnover intention, presenteeism, and staffing shortages.

Objective:

The aim of this study was to analyze how participation in the StressPal Frontline: Essential Resilience Self-Care and Burnout Prevention program influenced healthcare workers’ stress and resilience. The program is a digital behavioral health intervention specifically developed for healthcare workers to enhance psychological flexibility and stress resilience.

Methods:

A pre-test/post-test quasi-experimental design was utilized to assess the effectiveness of the StressPal Frontline program in reducing stress and building resilience among 76 healthcare workers who completed the program. Outcome measures included the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) and the Brief Resilience Scale (BRS) to assess participants’ perception of stressful situations and ability to bounce back from stress. Descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, paired samples t-test, and multiple regression analysis were conducted.

Results:

The results indicated a 1.53-point reduction in PSS score after participating in the StressPal Frontline program, suggesting a statistically significant decline in average perceived stress due to participation in the training (p = .004). The corresponding value of Cohen’s d was 0.34, suggesting a small-to-medium effect of the intervention, StressPal Frontline program, in reducing perceived stress. For BRS, pre-post difference was not significant at the scale level, p = .074; however, item level analysis found significant increases in participants’ perception of their ability to bounce back quickly after hard times and handle difficult situations. No significant differences were found on outcome measures based on age, race, occupation or practice setting.

Conclusions:

The StressPal Frontline program was associated with positive outcomes in reducing perceived stress and increased resiliency. Our study also found no statistical differences of outcomes between participants of different ages, race/ethnicity, occupation, gender and practice settings. This is an important finding, as it indicates that the StressPal Frontline program may provide positive benefits for reducing stress and building resilience across professions, settings and individual characteristics. This program, along with other resources, could be implemented by healthcare organizations to support workers’ professional development and behavioral health and well-being.