Stress Coping Strategy on Perceived Stress Levels and Performance During a Simulated Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation

Cardiopulmonary Resuscitations Clinical Trial

Official title:

Impact of a Stress Coping Strategy on Perceived Stress Levels and Performance During a Simulated Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT01826318
• Other study ID #: SH_SIP_2007
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• First received: April 3, 2013
• Last updated: April 3, 2013
• Start date: December 2007
• Est. completion date: May 2008

Study information

• Verified date: April 2013
• Source: University Hospital, Basel, Switzerland
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Health authority: Switzerland: Ethikkommission
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

This study assessed the impact of a task-focusing strategy on perceived stress levels and performance during a simulated CPR scenario.

Description:

Background: Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) causes significant stress, which may cause deficiencies in attention and increase distractibility. This may lead to misjudgements of priorities and delays in CPR performance, which may further increase mental stress (vicious cycle).

Aim: This study assessed the impact of a task-focusing strategy on perceived stress levels and performance during a simulated CPR scenario.

Methods: This is a prospective, randomized-controlled trial

Setting: Simulator-center of the University Hospital Basel, Switzerland.

Participants: A total of 124 volunteer medical students

Intervention: Randomization to receive a 10 minute instruction to cope with stress by loudly posing two task-focusing questions ("what is the patient's condition?", "what immediate action is needed?") when feeling overwhelmed by stress (intervention group) or a control group.

Outcome measures: The primary outcome is the perceived levels of stress and feeling overwhelmed (stress/overload); secondary outcomes were hands-on time, time to start CPR and number of leadership statements.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 124
• Est. completion date: May 2008
• Est. primary completion date: March 2008
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: Both
• Age group: 20 Years to 80 Years

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• 4th year medical students

Exclusion Criteria:

Study Design

Allocation: Randomized, Endpoint Classification: Efficacy Study, Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment, Masking: Double Blind (Subject, Investigator, Outcomes Assessor)

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Cardiopulmonary Resuscitations

Intervention

Behavioral:
• Stress coping
Students in the intervention group received a 10 minute instruction to cope with stress. They were informed that an emergency situation is a stressful experience for health care workers and that perceived stress may interfere with their decision-making abilities and performance. Particularly, feeling overwhelmed by stress may cause cognitive impairment potentially leading to loss of concept how to deal with an emergency situation, which in turn further increases stress (vicious cycle). However, it is possible to overcome this situation by focusing on the basic conditions of the situation and the immediate actions that are needed. They were instructed that they should ask two task-focusing questions aloud ("what is the patient's condition?", "what immediate action is needed?") to overcome the negative consequences of feeling overwhelmed by stress.

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
Switzerland	University Hospital Basel, ICU	Basel	BS

Sponsors (1)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
University Hospital, Basel, Switzerland

Country where clinical trial is conducted

Switzerland, 

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Average level of stress/overload during the resuscitation period	The primary outcome was the average level of stress/overload during the resuscitation period for the experimental and the control group.	In the first 120 seconds after the onset of the cardiac arrest	No
Secondary	hands-on time	Medical performance measures: hands-on time defined as duration of uninterrupted chest compressions and defibrillation in the first 120 seconds after the onset of the cardiac arrest.	in the first 120 seconds after the onset of the cardiac arrest.	No
Secondary	time elapsed until CPR was started	the time elapsed until CPR was started, defined as the time to the first meaningful measure (either defibrillation, chest compression or ventilation) after the onset of the cardiac arrest; the team coordination measure	in the first 120 seconds after the onset of the cardiac arrest	No
Secondary	leadership statements	Number of leadership statements coded, using a predefined checklist containing the following categories based on previous research	in the first 120 seconds after the onset of the cardiac arrest	No