Written Exposure Therapy for Nurses

NCT ID: NCT06432374

Last Updated: 2024-05-29

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: COMPLETED
• Clinical Phase: EARLY_PHASE1
• Total Enrollment: 10 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2022-02-01
• Study Completion Date: 2023-09-01

Brief Summary

Nurses often experience elevated levels of stress, overwork, and trauma in the workplace, leading to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, burnout, and even nurse turnover. While effective therapies for PTSD exist, barriers to treatment arise from nursing culture, such as workplace stigma about mental health problems, fear that psychological status may impact performance evaluations, and demands of shiftwork. There is a pressing need for scalable evidence-based interventions tailored to nursing culture to effectively address PTSD and related mental health issues. The study aimed to assess the feasibility, safety, and acceptability of a tailored evidence-based treatment, Written Exposure Therapy (WET), for nurses experiencing work-related traumatic stress.

This single-arm open pilot study with pre- and post-intervention assessments, included participants from two nursing schools' alumni. Eligibility criteria included nurses screening positive for work-related trauma with a report of at least two PTSD symptoms. Participants engaged in a self-administered, asynchronous, five-week online writing session, facilitated by WET-trained nurses. Outcomes measures (PTSD, depression, anxiety, burnout, and intention to quit) were assessed at baseline, post-intervention, and 5-weeks follow-up.

Conditions

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder; Depressive Symptoms; Burn Out; Anxiety; Work Related Stress

Study Design

• Allocation Method: NA
• Intervention Model: SINGLE_GROUP
• Primary Study Purpose: TREATMENT
• Blinding Strategy: NONE

Study Groups

Written Exposure Therapy

WET is a trauma-focused therapy for PTSD. It includes five writing sessions.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

WET

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

The five weekly WET sessions were delivered online via Canvas. Five session modules were created, each containing writing instructions for the respective session and an assignment feature for participants to upload their narratives. All sessions included 30 minutes of writing. Following instructions, participants wrote about a specific work-related trauma event in detail and described the emotions and thoughts experienced during the event. While all sessions were self-paced, participants were advised to complete each subsequent session within one week. Participants had the option to self-administer sessions or participate in Zoom "office hours" for live writing sessions with a facilitator who had completed WET training providing the writing instructions.

Interventions

WET

The five weekly WET sessions were delivered online via Canvas. Five session modules were created, each containing writing instructions for the respective session and an assignment feature for participants to upload their narratives. All sessions included 30 minutes of writing. Following instructions, participants wrote about a specific work-related trauma event in detail and described the emotions and thoughts experienced during the event. While all sessions were self-paced, participants were advised to complete each subsequent session within one week. Participants had the option to self-administer sessions or participate in Zoom "office hours" for live writing sessions with a facilitator who had completed WET training providing the writing instructions.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• Work-related trauma
• Posttraumatic stress disorder

Exclusion Criteria

• Current substance abuse
• Current suicidality
• Current psychiatric treatment with psychotherapy or psychotropic medications other than selective serotonin (and norepinephrine) reuptake inhibitors (SSRI/SNRI).

• Minimum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Sponsors

University of Michigan

OTHER

Sponsor Role: collaborator

University of Texas at Austin

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Yang Li

Assistant Professor

Responsibility Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Locations

University of Michigan

Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States

Countries

United States

Other Identifiers

HUM00203166

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id