Turning Night Into Day: Transcontinental Provision of Telehealth By and For the Emory Community

Emory University7 enrolled

Overview

The purpose of the study is to determine if temporarily relocating clinicians who deliver remote care using the eICU telehealth system to Sydney, Australia will lead to greater job satisfaction, reduced physiologic stress, and improve performance. Four nurses and six physicians will be sent to a site in Sydney Australia on a rotating basis to determine whether providing care during the Australian daytime is more efficient and precise than providing care during the night in the United States.

The purpose of the study is to determine if temporarily relocating clinicians who deliver remote care using the eICU telehealth system to Sydney Australia will lead to greater job satisfaction, reduced physiologic stress, and improve performance. Four nurses and six physicians will be sent to a site in Sydney Australia on a rotating basis to determine whether providing care during the Australian daytime is more efficient and precise than providing care during the night in the United States. As part of this pilot, each participant will undergo a series of evaluations before leaving, while in Australia, and after returning. The evaluations will include questionnaires related to well-being, task assessment (such as completing a paper maze or performing arithmetic), physiology assessment (such as continuous measure of heart rate by a wristwatch type device), and stress assessment (by sampling saliva and measuring cortisol and interleukin-1 Beta). The researchers would like to determine whether normalization of the provider's (physician or nurse who are the research subjects) sleep-wake cycle improves subjective and objective well-being. Additionally, investigators seek to determine whether normalization of the provider's (physician or nurse who are the research subjects) sleep-wake cycle improves alertness and focus, and determine whether normalization of the provider's (physician or nurse who are the research subjects) sleep-wake cycle improves job performance.

Study Type

INTERVENTIONAL

Allocation

Purpose

HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH

Masking

NONE

Enrollment

Conditions

Mental Fatigue

Interventions

Travel Telehealth DeliveryOTHER

Clinical Operations Room (COR) staff will travel to Sydney Australia to deliver telehealth to patients in Georgia United States. Upon arrival, participants will have eight nights and seven days free of clinical responsibilities. Thereafter, each participant will work four consecutive days of 12 hour shifts followed by four consecutive days with no clinical assignment. The following week, participants will work three consecutive days of 12 hour shifts followed by four consecutive days with no clinical assignment. Upon return to the USA, participants will have a week free of clinical responsibilities.

Eligibility

Sex: ALLMin age: 18 Years

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

Inclusion Criteria: * Clinicians working in the clinical operations room at Emory University Hospital who volunteer participation in the study Exclusion Criteria: * Declining to participate after the first phase of data collection

Locations (1)

Emory University

Atlanta, Georgia, United States

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

Change in Salivary Cortisol Levels

Saliva will be collected via a mouth swab and tested for cortisol levels. Cortisol is a stress biomarker.