Clinical trial NCT06786962: Virtual Reality Hypnosis and Nurses' Stress
Official title: Effects of a Virtual Reality Hypnosis Intervention on Reducing Stress and Compassion Fatigue in Neonatal Intensive Care Nurses
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Hypnosis
Virtual Reality Therapy
Stress
Compassion Fatigue
Compassion Satisfaction
Emotions
Anxiety
Keywords: Hypnosis
Virtual reality
Stress
Compassion fatigue
Neonatal intensive care nurses
Stress reduction program
Non Pharmacological Intervention
Lead sponsor: CARESP: Cellule d'animation régionale en soins palliatifs
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: University of Rennes 2
First posted: 2025-01-22
Enrollment: 43
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Intervention model description: Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) Nurses (n = 42) will be randomly assigned to one of two conditions (control or Virtual Reality Hypnosis (VRH)). Each nurse will receive six 10-minute sessions of one of the techniques for 6 weeks (1 session per week).
Primary purpose: PREVENTION

Brief summary: The practice of nursing is based on helping relationships and empathy. The work is physically, mentally and emotionally demanding. This requires the mobilization of personal resources (lifestyle, coping strategies) and work resources (managerial, medical support, recognition) to cope with stress. When these resources are present, nurses can activate a resilience process through coping strategies. However, stress levels and emotional impact are such that they can lead to states of suffering and trauma such as compassion fatigue (CF). The prevalence of CF is high in the nursing profession and particularly among neonatal intensive care (NICU) nurses.

Several levels of intervention exist to prevent CF in services: organizational, inter-individual and individual. At the individual level, certain interventions such as meditation have been studied, showing positive effects with the highest levels of evidence.

On the other hand, interventions such as hypnosis have not yet been studied in this context. There is, however, an interest in studying hypnosis as a non-pharmacological intervention to reduce stress and improve emotional regulation. Indeed, the hypnotic process (promoting attentional and cognitive rest, redirecting attentional focus, reducing mental effort) is a resource activator. In order to combine individual and organizational support, the intervention must be offered in the workplace and during working hours, given the difficulty nurses have in extracting themselves from the service, the restricted break time and the acceptability of the virtual reality system. In a context where break time is short and precious, it is necessary to use a tool that adapts to these constraints. Virtual reality with the HypnoVR® tool meets these needs. This device acts as a restorative environment. It has already proven its effectiveness in the care of painful and stressed patients in critical situations. It has not yet been studied in the context of work-related stress in healthcare professionals, such as neonatal intensive care nurses. The protocol takes into account the results of studies reporting the effects associated with the use of virtual reality (VR).


Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Nurse
* Regularly work in a neonatal intensive care unit
* Be of legal age and not opposed to participating in research
* Fluency in French

Exclusion Criteria:

* Age \< 18
* Refusal to participate
* Current anticonvulsant or psychotropic treatment

Primary outcomes:
measure: Stress levels
timeFrame: From enrollment to the end of treatment at 8 weeks
measure: Emotions
timeFrame: From enrollment to the end of treatment at 8 weeks
measure: Anxiety
timeFrame: From enrollment to the end of treatment at 8 weeks
measure: Restoration
timeFrame: From enrollment to the end of treatment at 8 weeks
measure: Satisfaction and compassion fatigue
timeFrame: From enrollment to the end of treatment at 8 weeks
measure: Comfort level
timeFrame: From enrollment to the end of treatment at 8 weeks
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Evaluation of experience
timeFrame: From enrollment to the end of treatment at 8 weeks
measure: Acceptability
timeFrame: From enrollment to the end of treatment at 8 weeks
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Rennes
country: France
facility: RENNES
state: Bretagne
Study officials:
affiliation: University of Rennes 2
name: Estelle MICHINOV, PhD
role: STUDY_DIRECTOR
References:
citation: Nukarinen, T., Istance, H. O., Rantala, J., Mäkelä, J., Korpela, K., Ronkainen, K., Surakka, V., & Raisamo, R. (2020). Physiological and Psychological Restoration in Matched Real and Virtual Natural Environments. Extended Abstracts of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1145/3334480.3382956
citation: Asadollah F, Nikfarid L, Sabery M, Varzeshnejad M, Hashemi F. The Impact of Loving-Kindness Meditation on Compassion Fatigue of Nurses Working in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit: A Randomized Clinical Trial Study. Holist Nurs Pract. 2023 Jul-Aug 01;37(4):215-222. doi: 10.1097/HNP.0000000000000590.
citation: Boselli, E. (2018). Intérêt du monitorage du tonus parasympathique relatif par Analgesia/Nociception Index (ANI) chez les patients anesthésiés ou conscients. Douleurs : Évaluation - Diagnostic - Traitement, 19(5), 205-210. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.douler.2018.07.008
citation: Bresesti I, Folgori L, De Bartolo P. Interventions to reduce occupational stress and burn out within neonatal intensive care units: a systematic review. Occup Environ Med. 2020 Aug;77(8):515-519. doi: 10.1136/oemed-2019-106256. Epub 2020 Mar 4.
citation: Figley, C. R. (Éd.). (2015). Compassion fatigue : Coping with secondary traumatic stress disorder in those who treat the traumatized. Routledge.
citation: Jess G, Pogatzki-Zahn EM, Zahn PK, Meyer-Friessem CH. Monitoring heart rate variability to assess experimentally induced pain using the analgesia nociception index: A randomised volunteer study. Eur J Anaesthesiol. 2016 Feb;33(2):118-25. doi: 10.1097/EJA.0000000000000304.
citation: Kaplan, S. (1995). The restorative benefits of nature : Toward an integrative framework. Journal of environmental psychology, 15(3), 169-182.
citation: Joinson C. Coping with compassion fatigue. Nursing. 1992 Apr;22(4):116, 118-9, 120. No abstract available.
citation: Liang, L., Gobeawan, L., Lau, S.-K., Lin, E. S., & Ang, K. K. (2024). Urban Green Spaces and Mental Well-Being : A Systematic Review of Studies Comparing Virtual Reality versus Real Nature. Future Internet, 16(6), Article 6. https://doi.org/10.3390/fi16060182
citation: Ruysschaert, N. (2009). (Self) hypnosis in the prevention of burnout and compassion fatigue for caregivers : Theory and induction. Contemporary Hypnosis (John Wiley & Sons, Inc.), 26(3), 159-172. https://doi.org/10.1002/ch.382
citation: Touloudi E, Hassandra M, Galanis E, Goudas M, Theodorakis Y. Applicability of an Immersive Virtual Reality Exercise Training System for Office Workers during Working Hours. Sports (Basel). 2022 Jun 29;10(7):104. doi: 10.3390/sports10070104.
citation: Watson D, Clark LA, Tellegen A. Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: the PANAS scales. J Pers Soc Psychol. 1988 Jun;54(6):1063-70. doi: 10.1037//0022-3514.54.6.1063.
citation: Wong JQH, Charles JS, Mok HT, Tan TSZ, Amin Z, Ng YPM. Experiences of healthcare personnel with death in the neonatal intensive care unit: a systematic review of qualitative studies. Arch Dis Child Fetal Neonatal Ed. 2023 Nov;108(6):617-622. doi: 10.1136/archdischild-2023-325566. Epub 2023 May 17.
citation: Zhang YY, Zhang C, Han XR, Li W, Wang YL. Determinants of compassion satisfaction, compassion fatigue and burn out in nursing: A correlative meta-analysis. Medicine (Baltimore). 2018 Jun;97(26):e11086. doi: 10.1097/MD.0000000000011086.
citation: Singer T, Klimecki OM. Empathy and compassion. Curr Biol. 2014 Sep 22;24(18):R875-R878. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2014.06.054.
citation: Ruiz-Fernandez MD, Perez-Garcia E, Ortega-Galan AM. Quality of Life in Nursing Professionals: Burnout, Fatigue, and Compassion Satisfaction. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020 Feb 15;17(4):1253. doi: 10.3390/ijerph17041253.
citation: Boselli E, Musellec H, Bernard F, Guillou N, Hugot P, Augris-Mathieu C, Diot-Junique N, Bouvet L, Allaouchiche B. EFFECTS OF CONVERSATIONAL HYPNOSIS ON RELATIVE PARASYMPATHETIC TONE AND PATIENT COMFORT DURING AXILLARY BRACHIAL PLEXUS BLOCKS FOR AMBULATORY UPPER LIMB SURGERY:A Quasiexperimental Pilot Study. Int J Clin Exp Hypn. 2018 Apr-Jun;66(2):134-146. doi: 10.1080/00207144.2018.1421355.