RESEARCHERS led by a team at the University of Aberdeen have produced an app for NHS frontline workers to help them have a ‘good day’ at work.
Given the increased pressure on frontline workers due to Covid-19, the app has been designed to improve work satisfaction, mental health and resilience in medical personnel who may be struggling to cope with difficult working conditions.
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The ‘How was your day?’ app is being launched in Scotland today in collaboration with Trickle Data Insights, and forms one of five evidence-based interventions developed in conjunction with the five Scottish medical schools and NHS Education for Scotland.
The app will ask users to rate how they are feeling throughout the day and collate how their mood is affected by their activity at work. The results will be reported to the user and to the health board every week and will be used to help inform constructive changes to working practices.
Funded by Scotland’s Chief Scientist Office, Dr Kim Walker from the Centre for Healthcare Research Education and Innovation (CHERI) in the School of Medicine, Medical Sciences and Nutrition at the University of Aberdeen, was awarded more than £200,000 as part of its Rapid Research in Covid-19 programme.
Dr Walker said: “I am very excited that we are launching this app development today as a direct result of our study in which we interviewed over 100 doctors in every Scottish health board, with a view to help improve their wellbeing and resilience not only now but in the future. Ultimately, we want to ensure that doctors feel valued and supported by their organisation.
“So far, the feedback we have had challenges the assumption that doctors have undergone a transition into the ‘new normal’ of Covid-19, with many saying they still feel that their working lives are anything but normal, and the pandemic has magnified already existing challenges to doctors’ wellbeing.
“Many staff are experiencing uncertainty about the future and say they are feeling stressed and anxious especially with the upcoming reality of the second wave, normal winter pressures and dealing with the delayed presentation of other diseases.
“In order to benefit Scotland’s population, the health and wellbeing of staff who deliver medical care must be supported and this app is just one example of a number of interventions we are working on to do this.”
Initially, the app will be available to all trainee doctors in NHS Lothian and all healthcare workers in the Acute Medicine Unit in NHS Tayside, with a view to rolling it out to more frontline staff in the future.
