Clinical trial NCT05438745: The Effects of Dog Therapy on Ambulance Staff Burnout Scores.
Official title: The Effects of Dog Therapy on Ambulance Staff Burnout Scores.
Study type: OBSERVATIONAL
Overall status: UNKNOWN
Conditions: Burn Out
EMS Exposures or Injuries of EMS Personnel
Lead sponsor: Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust
Sponsor class: OTHER_GOV
Collaborators: name: National Institute for Health Research, United Kingdom
First posted: 2022-06-30
Enrollment: 20
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Maximum age (years): 68
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Observational model: COHORT
Time perspective: PROSPECTIVE
Sampling method: NON_PROBABILITY_SAMPLE
Study population: Convenience sample of patient facing staff who are participating in Yorkshire Ambulance Service pet therapy scheme.

Brief summary: Problem During the COVID 19 pandemic, NHS staff have become increasingly burned out. Mental health is the leading cause of staff sickness and absence in the NHS. Ambulance trusts have the highest rates of sickness across all NHS professions. Reduced staffing levels directly impacts service delivery. Staff struggling with poor mental health are more likely to make errors, have reduced empathy, and patients have lower patient satisfaction.

The Solution? Dog therapy is used in hospital settings around the world for patient benefit and staff welfare.

Evidence suggests dog therapy improves mood and reduces anxiety. Yorkshire Ambulance Service (YAS) has a small, but established dog therapy scheme, organised by the health and wellbeing team.

This research aims to observe if dog therapy affects symptoms of burnout in YAS staff. We will use two sets of staff:

Patient facing staff Staff with remote patient contact

What will participants need to do?

Participants will be given a Copenhagen Burnout Inventory - a questionnaire focusing on three factors:

Personal burnout Work related burnout Client related burnout

Burnout will be measured in 4 categories; no/low, moderate, high and severe burnout.

The questionnaire will be completed at the beginning and end of 8 weeks of dog therapy.

* Some optional demographic questions
* Number of sessions attended
* Engagement with occupational health services
* Dog Ownership

We will calculate the difference in severity of burnout between baseline and after 8 weeks of dog therapy.

A PPI group has been consulted on methodology, wording of plain English summary and the dissemination plan.

This research will be distributed to all interested participants, published in an appropriate journal presented at conferences, and presented in the ICA dissemination event.


Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

Yorkshire Ambulance Service (YAS) Employee with patient contact. Patient contact includes face to face to face or remote patient contact. Taking part in YAS dog therapy scheme. Completed no more than 2 dog therapy sessions to date. -

Exclusion Criteria:

Staff with no patient contact as part of their role. Staff on bank contract

-

Primary outcomes:
measure: Mean difference in change of each section of Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (CBI) Score
timeFrame: 8 weeks.
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Mean difference ambulance turnaround times.
timeFrame: 8 weeks.
measure: Drop out rate.
timeFrame: 8 weeks.
Other outcomes:
Locations:
Study officials:
affiliation: Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust
name: Richard Pilbery, MSc
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: