Hunziker, Sabina; Pagani, Simona; Fasler, Katrin; Tschan, Franziska; Semmer, Norbert K.; Marsch, Stephan (2013). Impact of a stress coping strategy on perceived stress levels and performance during a simulated cardiopulmonary resuscitation: a randomized controlled trial. BMC emergency medicine, 13(1), p. 8. BioMed Central 10.1186/1471-227X-13-8
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Background
Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) causes significant stress, which may cause deficiencies
in attention and increase distractibility. This may lead to misjudgements of priorities and
delays in CPR performance, which may further increase mental stress (vicious cycle). This
study assessed the impact of a task-focusing strategy on perceived stress levels and
performance during a simulated CPR scenario. Methods
This prospective, randomized-controlled trial was conducted at the simulator-center of the
University Hospital Basel, Switzerland. A total of 124 volunteer medical students were
randomized to receive a 10 minute instruction to cope with stress by loudly posing two taskfocusing
questions (“what is the patient’s condition?”, “what immediate action is needed?”)
when feeling overwhelmed by stress (intervention group) or a control group. The primary
outcome was the perceived levels of stress and feeling overwhelmed (stress/overload);
secondary outcomes were hands-on time, time to start CPR and number of leadership
statements.
Results
Participants in the intervention group reported significantly less stress/overload levels
compared to the control group (mean difference: -0.6 (95%CI −1.3, -0.1), p=0.04). Higher
stress/overload was associated with less hands-on time. Leadership statements did not differ
between groups, but the number of leadership statements did relate to performance. Hands-on
time was longer in the intervention- group, but the difference was not statistically different
(difference 5.5 (95%CI −3.1, 14.2), p=0.2); there were no differences in time to start CPR
(difference −1.4 (95%CI −8.4, 5.7), p=0.71).
Conclusions
A brief stress-coping strategy moderately decreased perceived stress without significantly
affecting performance in a simulated CPR. Further studies should investigate more intense
interventions for reducing stress.
Item Type: |
Journal Article (Original Article) |
|---|---|
Division/Institute: |
07 Faculty of Human Sciences > Institute of Psychology > Work and Organisational Psychology |
UniBE Contributor: |
Semmer, Norbert Karl |
Subjects: |
100 Philosophy > 150 Psychology 300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology |
ISSN: |
1471-227X |
Publisher: |
BioMed Central |
Language: |
English |
Submitter: |
Diana Cristina Romano |
Date Deposited: |
02 May 2014 14:46 |
Last Modified: |
02 Mar 2023 23:24 |
Publisher DOI: |
10.1186/1471-227X-13-8 |
BORIS DOI: |
10.7892/boris.48255 |
URI: |
https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/48255 |
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