Evaluating the Use and Effectiveness of Digital Mental Health Resources for Acute Care Nurses

Statement: The burnout phenomenon has been exacerbated over the last almost two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic (Maunder et al., 2021). Healthcare organizations must respond by implementing evidenced-based mental health initiatives to increase staff coping skills to reduce stress and emotional exhaustion (Galanis et al., 2021). While the project organization can access large-scale aggregate data about resource usage and its overall mental well-being, they cannot assess what percentage of users are nurses and the personal impact on their mental well-being. Due to these limitations, the organization cannot gauge how the nursing staff uses and responds to offered resources. Purpose: This quality improvement (QI) project aimed to measure the effectiveness of the current mental health resources available to nurses at one health care organization. The primary objective was to determine if the current resources are being utilized and to what extent and evaluate if there is a relationship between use and various aspects of mental health and well-being, such as resilience, stress, and mindfulness. Methods: Acute care nurses working at two of the organization\u27s campuses across nine units were asked to complete an anonymous survey regarding their experience with the current mental health resources available to them and questionnaires regarding various aspects of mental health. Analysis: After data collection, descriptive and multiple analytic statistics tests were used with both Excel and Intellectus Statistics to evaluate participant responses. Implications for Practice: This project contributed to the existing literature regarding the significant relationship between resilience, stress, and mindfulness. Insight to resources use, effectiveness, and recommendations from staff were provided to the project organization