An app to help tackle mental health issues among NHS staff has been created at Bath Spa University.
The Healthy Outcomes at Work (HOW) app has been designed for staff in three South West NHS Trusts, who said high volumes of work, unrealistic deadlines, a lack of resources and poor management around mental health were causing them issues.
HOW was devised by Dr Jermaine Ravalier, reader of work and wellbeing at Bath Spa University, in response to research carried out with Andrew McVicar, professor in psychology and healthcare at Anglia Ruskin University, and Charlotte Boichat, post-doctoral research assistant at Bath Spa University.
The app offers dedicated sections on the symptoms of stress, the sources of support available and tips for senior managers on how to improve wellbeing in their workforce.
Ravalier’s research, which was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), follows a recent study by the NHS which found the healthcare sector to have higher-than-average levels of stress-related sickness absence of all job sectors in the country.
According to the latest NHS Staff Survey, approximately 40 per cent of NHS staff take sick leave due to work-related stress.
The research also highlights a number of interventions that senior managers can make to help improve employee wellbeing, including more frequent supervision sessions to improve relationships, regular team meetings, mental health education for managers, efforts to change the environmental culture around taking breaks.
'More needs to be done'
Ravalier said: “It’s shocking that nearly 40 per cent of NHS staff have reported feeling unwell as a result of work-related stress and it’s clear to us that more needs to be done to tackle the issue.
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"As well as negatively impacting staff wellbeing, stress and sickness absence also have huge implications for the quality of care that patients receive, so we hope the research and app can go some way to helping those affected.
"In time we’d like to see these resources being made available to NHS Trusts up and down the country.”
The research and app will be presented at the Creating and Sustaining a Healthy Workforce Conference on Friday, September 13, at Bath Spa University’s Newton Park Campus.
The one-day conference will raise awareness of the importance of creating and sustaining a healthy workforce.
Experts from the healthcare sector will be speaking at the event including Dr Ruth Allen, chief executive of the British Association of Social work; John McGowan, general secretary at the Social Worker’s Union; and Dr Elaine Wainwright, reader in health and occupational psychology at Bath Spa University.
Wainwright has also conducted a study which looks specifically at stress levels amongst trainee anaesthetists across the South West and Wales.
Her research reveals that almost 40 per cent of trainee anaesthetists experience high levels of stress caused by excessive non-clinical workloads, such as such as paperwork and exhaustion.
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She said: “This research is the first to explore in depth why trainee anaesthetists in the 海角视频, who express great love for their jobs, may also struggle with the demanding, complex, extremely valuable work they do.
"It was troubling to hear how many doctors expressed high levels of work stress. A key recommendation arising from the study is enabling vital non-clinical work to have dedicated time within training.”
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