WINGS Project: Wellness Interventions for Nurses' Post Traumatic Growth and Self Care : A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial Study

Recent pandemic crisis has further exposed nurses to added vulnerabilities, trauma, and sufferings including increased burnouts, suicide rates, psychological and existential crisis. Nurses working in nursing homes, long term care and hospice settings require increased support to embrace reappraise their trauma and suffering in order to gain personal strength and growth. Our study aimed to examine the effectiveness of 'SOPHIE' (Self-exploration through Ontological, Phenomenological, and Humanistic, Ideological, and Existential expressions) as a self-reflective wellness intervention to promote resilience, posttraumatic growth, and subjective wellbeing among nurses working in the palliative care settings.

The specific aims of the study included: 1) To determine the extent of self-perceived trauma, resilience, and subjective wellbeing among nurses working in palliative care settings (i.e., nursing homes, hospice, and long-term care facilities) 2) To identify associated factors contributing to trauma, resilience, and subjective wellbeing of nurses. 3) To evaluate the effectiveness of a self-reflective wellness intervention tool in promoting fostering resilience, posttraumatic growth, and subjective wellbeing of nurses. The study was guided by NPT (Nurse Psychological Trauma) and SOHIE framework. Using a quasi-experimental Pre and Posttest design, we enrolled 160 participants in the study. Participants in the intervention group were asked to write 2 blogs every week online using Qualtrics and attend a 4 hour wellness workshop. Pre- and post-intervention surveys were sent online at the baseline, four weeks, and six weeks following intervention.

Pre and post-test surveys were analyzed using the SPSS, a quantitative statistical tool and included self-reported outcomes measures of post traumatic growth, resilience and subjective wellbeing between the control and intervention groups at baseline, 4 weeks and 6 weeks of the study. Demographic data was also analyzed. The participant characteristics include participant's age, gender, level of education, position, training. whereas research outcome variables include post traumatic growth, resilience, and subjective wellbeing. Inferential statistics was used to test the hypothesis under the study. Statistical significance kept at p<0.05 (two-sided) level. Content analysis was done for the descriptive data in the survey including blogs and feedback regarding the intervention. Weekly blogs received were analyzed using thematic analysis approach.

Findings showed significant differences in subjective wellbeing of nurses post intervention. Nearly all participants found blog writing as a supportive and therapeutic intervention that helped them to reflect on their experiences of anxiety, trauma and distress.