A Pilot Feasibility and Acceptability Study of a Relational Playbook and Coaching Intervention for Cardiology Teams to Enhance Employee Well-being and Veteran Care

Background: The Veterans Health Administration (VA) is prioritizing employee well-being due to crisis levels of clinician burnout and turnover. The VA aims to achieve this by becoming a "Best Place to Work" while delivering high quality, safe and equitable care to Veterans using learning health system (LHS) and high reliability organization (HRO) principles. The National Academy of Medicine (NAM) has proposed organizations create supportive learning environments to improve workforce well-being. However, there is no one-size-fits all solution. While the VA has invested in system level well-being efforts, including the Reduce Employee Burnout and Optimize Organizational Thriving (REBOOT) initiative, there is little guidance for teams on how to create supportive learning environments. To fill this gap, we developed The Relational Playbook. The Playbook consists of research-based resources and 50 evidence-based interventions for nurse managers to implement to change their team cultures including how to create joy in work and address difficult relationships. To support managers implementing the Playbook, the investigators propose leadership coaching as a novel implementation strategy.

Significance: The significance of this project is the potential to provide frontline managers with resources and research-based tools to create supportive learning environments that enhance employee well-being. Additionally, the study will contribute to the fields of implementation, LHS and HRO science and the VA efforts to enhance employee well-being and reduce burnout and turnover.

Innovation and Impact: The proposed research is innovative in that it attempts to shift the current model for the creation of supportive learning environments from an organization-level focus to the team level - where Veterans receive care. The investigators will partner with VA cardiac catheterization laboratories (CCLs) as a model LHS for this work. The investigators aim to implement and establish the feasibility and acceptability of the Relational Playbook intervention combined with leadership coaching. The hypothesis is that enhanced leadership coaching will be a more feasible and acceptable approach to support Playbook implementation and the cultivation of supportive learning environments than standard implementation support.

Specific Aims: Aim 1: Test the implementation, feasibility and acceptability of the Playbook intervention, coaching strategy, and study procedures. The VA Collaborative Evaluation Center (VACE), an independent group of mixed methods experts, will collect the feasibility and acceptability measures developed by Weiner et al. and select Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation and Maintenance (REAIM) measures. Aim 2: Conduct a mixed methods process evaluation of intervention implementation. VACE will collect interview data to understand 1) intervention adaptations, ease of use, engagement, usefulness, and 2) implementation speed, costs, barriers, facilitators, and unintended consequences.

Methodology: The investigators propose a pilot, site randomized trial design with an embedded mixed methods process evaluation. The investigators have enrolled 6 CCLs and will collect staff and unit level data using surveys and interviews at baseline, 6 and 12 months. All 6 sites will implement the Playbook. CCLs will be randomized to enhanced leadership coaching implementation support (n=3) or standard implementation support (n=3). The enhanced implementation group will receive 6 months of virtual leadership coaching support. The standard implementation group will receive logistical support, but no advisement or coaching.

Next steps: The study findings will 1) establish the feasibility and acceptability of the Playbook intervention combined with a leadership coaching implementation strategy, and 2) inform the design of a pragmatic adaptive effectiveness trial. This trial will test the impact of the Playbook and coaching on employee well-being and factors that contribute to employee burnout, which is a new VA research priority area. This project is relevant to all aspects of VA healthcare for it will test the feasibility and acceptability of a novel Relational Playbook combined with a leadership coaching implementation strategy for frontline managers to cultivate supportive learning environments. This work will inform national efforts to enhance employee wellbeing due to crisis levels of employee burnout and turnover. The investigators will pilot the Playbook with 1:1 virtual leadership coaching to inspire nurse managers to improve their team culture. The investigators will conduct a mixed methods process evaluation to inform a pragmatic adaptive effectiveness trial. The investigators expect this study to demonstrate the Playbook combined with coaching is a feasible and acceptable approach to create supportive learning environments that improve employee well-being and address factors contributing to employee burnout and turnover.