Burnout Syndrome in the Intensive Care Unit Before and During a Palliative Care Trial

Plain-language summary

One hundred ICU doctors, nurses and psychologists from the 28 units participating in the EPIC stepped-wedge trial (ClinicalTrials.gov NCT06605079) will each complete the same four-part survey twice-once during their unit's usual-care phase and again during the EPIC tele-palliative-care intervention. The questionnaire begins with Part A, gathering demographic and professional details such as age, gender, family status, education, role, years of ICU service, shift patterns, leave days and any prior palliative-care or ethics training. Part B then probes 22 workplace stressors and ethical dilemmas-resource constraints, family pressures, moral conflicts, emotional distancing from colleagues, perceived control over decisions and work-life balance-using a five-point frequency scale. Part C merges a 19-item Maslach Burnout Inventory subset (emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, personal accomplishment) on a seven-point frequency scale with a 16-item Oldenburg Burnout Inventory subset (exhaustion, disengagement) on a four-point agreement scale. Finally, Part D employs Neff's 16-item Self-Compassion Scale-rated from almost never to almost always-to assess self-kindness, common humanity, mindfulness, self-judgment, isolation and over-identification. Within-subject, repeated-measures analyses of total and subscale scores will quantify how EPIC's blended-learning curriculum and standardized teleconsultations shift clinician burnout profiles and self-compassion over time.

Who can participate

What they're measuring

Trial details