In the healthcare work environment, the discomfort and emotional exhaustion of professionals has been increasing in recent years and, with greater evidence, after the Covid pandemic. According to some studies, this feeling of discomfort or burnout, exceeds 40% among primary care professionals.
Faced with this situation, the Can Rull and Can Llong Primary Care Center in Parc Taulí decided to create an intervention program to facilitate the emotional management of its professionals to face stressful situations, as well as channel unpleasant situations and feelings.
The objective of the study was to evaluate the impact on affective and cognitive variables of the implementation of virtual reality and the guided practice of mindfulness techniques. Mindfulness. This clinical trial involved 14 professionals from the CAP Can Rull and CAP Can Llong teams in the healthcare area (medicine, nursing and nursing assistant care technicians) and administrative management. Evaluations were carried out before and after the program, as well as momentary ecological assessments (EMA) before and after each of the sessions.
This project was developed over two months, with three different groups, with a total of five weekly sessions of 60 minutes duration, led by psychology and nursing professionals. In these sessions, attentional focus practices were carried out, such as mindfulness exercises and diaphragmatic breathing, as well as emotional regulation and physiological activation techniques, including thought management and progressive muscle relaxation. These practices were complemented by the use of virtual reality, which offered an immersive experience through high-resolution graphics, allowing participants to explore natural environments such as the Amazon rainforest, coral reefs or African savannas.
"During the study process, a beneficial impact was verified in the short and long term. At the end of the session, the participants experienced an emotional improvement, translated into an increase in positive affectivity and relaxation, in addition to a decrease in activation and discouragement. This evidence has been verified once the clinical trial has been completed with results showing an improvement in emotional well-being and a decrease in the feeling of social isolation of the professionals who have participated”, explains Laura Comendador, head of emotional well-being and community health (RBEC) at CAP Can Rull – Can Llong and responsible for the clinical trial.
The study shows how the implementation of programs based on virtual reality with techniques Mindfulness They are very well accepted by professionals and contribute to improving the emotional health of professionals in healthcare environments.
The Parc Taulí has the portal Healthy Taulí dedicated to promoting people's knowledge about their health to achieve a healthier work environment and have a work system implemented that promotes health in healthcare organizations. “Taking care of emotional and work well-being is very important. That's why we look for and offer improvements to provide professionals with tools for relaxation, overcoming and resilience. Like, for example, the virtual reality activity, which has opened a new horizon within the field of well-being.”, explained Dr. Miquel Cirera, director of the primary care service of Can Rull and Can Llong.
New editions of this virtual reality program are planned with the aim of implementing it as a fixed element within the work and emotional well-being program for professionals, which the primary care of Parc Taulí has been developing for years. In these new editions, it is planned that the entire team of professionals from the Primary Care of the Corporació Sanitària Parc Taulí will participate. The use of virtual reality for the treatment of certain pathologies, which can be presented by the users of Can Rull and Can Llong, is also being studied.
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