Background
Trainees in professional health care programs report stress levels that exceed the general population. Despite an ethical responsibility to engage in self-care, professional knowledge of the importance of self-care, and awareness of what such practices often entail, trainees report barriers to engaging in self-care. They also report feeling ill-equipped to cope with the demands of their programs.
Hypotheses/Research Questions
As a follow-up to our previously conducted grounded theory (Campoli & Cummings, 2018), we designed and evaluated a 6-week group intervention, which we called Value-Based Self-Care (VBSC). Given the centrality of values in our grounded theory, VBSC was also informed by Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. We predicted that the VBSC group would show an increase in self-care, valued living, self-esteem, and less emotional distress, as compared to the waitlist control group.
Sample Characteristics and Sample Size
Participants (N = 61) were professional students from a variety of health disciplines (e.g., medicine, nursing, psychology).
Design
Participants were randomly assigned into either an intervention (VBSC) or waitlist control group. After the wait period, participants in the waitlist control group were then transferred into the intervention arm of the trial. We examined between group differences comparing the intervention and waitlist control group, as well as within-person changes pre- to post-intervention using the total sample.
Results
Post-intervention, the VBSC group showed a significant increase in self-care and depression. Within-person changes pre- to post-intervention showed significant increases in self-care, emotional distress (stress, depression, anxiety), valued living, and self-esteem.
Scientific Contribution
Our findings provide evidence for the utility of our grounded theory model, and they speak to the importance of values in developing sustainable and preventative self-care plans. In addition, self-esteem appears to play a role in self-care choices, and this has been an understudied construct in understanding health behaviours in professional health students.